IPMA urges ban on inferior paper imports to protect domestic industry

The paper industry has urged the government to ban inferior-grade material imports, impose quality control orders and monitor inward paper shipments to protect local manufacturers from predatory imports.

Raising concerns over rising cheap imports, the Indian Paper Manufacturers Association (IPMA) has stated that the situation is likely to worsen significantly amid the recent baseline and reciprocal tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on key Asian exporters, including China and Indonesia.

IMPA has called for urgent policy action to safeguard the domestic paper industry while flagging the threat of global inventories being diverted to India.

The association has sought a ban on imports of rejected and inferior-grade material (stocklot), along with appropriate trade remedial measures, to check cheap paper and paperboard shipments, IMPA said in a statement.

IPMA has also sought monitoring of paper imports under the proposed Inter-Ministerial Import Monitoring Group.

The association has demanded the inclusion of paper and paperboard in the exclusion list of the ASEAN-India FTA and the issuance of Quality Control Orders to curb the influx of sub-standard imports.

IPMA stated that the Indian paper industry, with an estimated annual production of 22 million tonnes and employing over 20 lakh people directly and indirectly, is already grappling with escalating imports of paper and paperboard under preferential trade agreements.

"In the last four years, imports from China and ASEAN have more than doubled. Now, with the US and EU imposing restrictive tariffs and other trade remedial measures to protect their own markets, India is at risk of becoming a dumping ground for excess inventory from export-driven Asian economies," said IPMA president Pawan Agarwal.

IPMA noted that paper and paperboard imports into India touched nearly 1.76 million tonnes in April-December 2024-25, with imports from China (up 36 per cent) and ASEAN (up 23 per cent) during the period.