China on Wednesday said it had launched anti-dumping investigations into optical fibres imported from India following complaints from the domestic industry.
The Ministry of Commerce said in a statement it would investigate whether Indian companies had sold single-mode optical fibres “at an artificially low price in China and damaged Chinese businesses,” the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The Ministry said the investigation was launched following a petition filed by the domestic industry. Optic fibres are crucial in enabling long-distance and high-speed transmission and communication. The investigation will last at least one year and could run until February 2015.
A widening trade imbalance has in recent years strained trade ties with India filing a record number of anti-dumping investigations against Chinese products. Just this week, officials said 159 anti-dumping investigations against China had been filed since 1992, accounting for more than half the total number of cases filed by India.
As of July, bilateral trade amounted to $37.5 billion, down 5 per cent.
The trade deficit had reached $19.06 billion after seven months of this year, according to figures released last week by the Chinese General Administration of Customs.