India’s Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has recommended a 12 per cent safeguard duty on some steel products to protect the country’s domestic industry from a surge in dumping of cheap imports from countries like China, South Korea and Vietnam, due to the sharp increase in US tariffs announced by the Donald Trump administration.

The Directorate General of Trade Remedies, which is the Commerce Ministry's trade investigations arm, has recommended the duties be applied for a period of 200 days, according to a preliminary decision published late on Tuesday.

"Any delay in imposition of provisional safeguard measures would cause further damage to the domestic industry, which may be irreparable, both in relation to potential closure of capacities, as well as decommissioning of future planned investments to increase capacity," the DGTR said.

Critical circumstances very much exist "warranting the immediate imposition of safeguard measures," it said.

"To counter the trade diversion from the US as well as any possible diversion from other countries that have put in place import barriers, any protective measure by India shall be at a level adequate to ward off the trade diversion," the order stated.

The findings are now open for comments for 30 days, after which the final decision will be announced. In view of the above conclusion, the authority considered the appropriate measure to be imposed provisionally. The objective is to protect the domestic industry for the product under consideration, against the surge of imports, it said. Trade diversion due to the protective measures imposed by the US has been a major cause of the surge in imports.

A safeguard duty is a temporary tariff barrier imposed to shield domestic industries from a surge in imports.

A trade diversion caused by the protective measures imposed by the US has been a major factor behind the surge in imports, according to the findings. To counter this, the European Union imposed a safeguard duty in the same year, followed by several countries, including South Africa, Turkey, Vietnam, and Malaysia, which also raised barriers against steel imports.

The DGTR has invited comments on its findings within 30 days after which an oral hearing will be held before passing the final order.