flat products: From April 2025 to 2028, India would levy a safeguard tariff of up to 12% on certain imports of steel
flat products: In order to protect the local steel sector from a rapid increase in imports, the government has placed a safeguard tariff on a number of alloy and non-alloy steel flat goods, the government said in an official gazette on Tuesday.
According to the notice, the decision comes after the Director General (Trade Remedies) (DGTR) conducted an inquiry and discovered that imports of certain steel goods had surged in a “recent, sudden, sharp and significant” way, endangering local manufacturers and causing them severe harm.
It said, “The Central Government after considering the said findings of the Director General (Trade Remedies), hereby imposes on the subject goods falling under tariff headings 7208, 7209, 7210, 7211, 7212, 7225 and 7226 of the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, when imported into India.”
Hot rolled coils, sheets, and plates; hot rolled plate mill plates; cold rolled coils and sheets; metallic coated steel coils and sheets, including galvanneal and zinc or aluminum-zinc coated products; and color-coated coils and sheets are among the goods covered by the safeguard obligation.
According to the notice, from April 21, 2025, to April 20, 2026, imports of the designated steel goods would be subject to a safeguard duty of 12% ad valorem. From April 21, 2026 to April 20, 2027, the duty will drop to 11.5%, and from April 21, 2027 to April 20, 2028, it will drop to 11%.
The central government had previously enforced a temporary safeguard obligation for 200 days beginning April 21, 2025, based on the preliminary conclusions of the DGTR. Through the Ministry of Finance, the Indian government announced this temporary obligation.
The DGTR suggested a longer-term safeguard measure in its final conclusions, which were issued on August 16, 2025, and stated that the spike in imports remained a major danger to the local sector. The government has now enforced a safeguard responsibility in response to these findings.
The Customs Tariff Act of 1975’s tariff headings 7208, 7209, 7210, 7211, 7212, 7225, and 7226 apply to these commodities.
The notice made it clear that the safeguard duty would not be imposed during the time between the end of the provisional duty and the day before the final notification was published in the Official Gazette.