A meeting organised by the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) in Karachi the other day underlined the objective of disseminating awareness in trade and industry in Pakistan of the need to defend themselves against the adverse impact from influx of imports at dumping prices.
It was also emphasised at the meeting that the anti-dumping law should be further strengthened and the National Tariff Commission, which is supposed to protect local industries against imports at dumping prices, should be given the status of an autonomous institution with its chairman preferably belonging to the judicial services.
Further, the meeting recommended that NTC should appoint on its staff lawyers and other experts selected from the private sector with knowledge of international trade laws and various rules of the WTO which require compliance from the member states.
It was pointed out that due to lack of adequate awareness about the anti-dumping laws in Pakistan, only four complaints about imports at dumping prices were registered with the NTC during the last four years while in neighbouring India about 200 complaints were lodged during the same period.
This meeting was undoubtedly a timely move by the FPCCI to make preparations against the likelihood of a surge in imports of manufactured goods at dumping prices into Pakistan as a sequel to the expected decisions in the Doha Development Round of WTO negotiations in the coming months.
The suggestion to strengthen the role of NTC in Pakistan is a correct approach. It may be noted here that Pakistan has been facing anti-dumping measures against its exports to European Union, Japan and other countries in recent years and consequently the country's exports of textiles in particular have suffered a setback. Not only such actions by foreign countries against Pakistan's exports could not be challenged effectively on time but also no retaliatory measures were initiated against dumping of a number of foreign goods in our markets. It was in this context that the FPCCI meeting took up the issue.
Other recommendations of the meeting also appeared to be quite sensible. These included establishment of facilitation centres with the co-ordination of Export Promotion Bureau and the FPCCI.
The centres would engage a sufficient number of lawyers and other experts to conduct studies relating to the impact of large scale dumping of manufactured goods by foreign countries.
These centres would also initiate suggestions from time to time to protect local industries whose survival could be threatened by such dumping.
The idea behind this strategy is to activate the NTC on time to take action against countries which might indulge in exports to Pakistan at dumping prices.
The facilitation centres would also initiate market research with the help of Pakistan's embassies in countries where our exports are threatened with penal action in the form of countervailing and anti-dumping duties.
The suggestion would enable Pakistan to make due preparations for defence against anti-dumping action on flimsy grounds.
Moreover, the facilitation's centres would study and analyse anti-dumping laws of major countries of the world which import Pakistani goods in large quantities. Advance planning in this sphere would make it possible for the facilitation centres to forewarn export industries and guide them to take suitable measures to correct their cost structure with a view to ensuring that anti-dumping action is not targeted at them.
The FPCCI meeting also emphasised that the government should take into confidence the private sector in the preparations for negotiations with foreign governments in respect of trade agreements and other matters relating to bilateral trade.
In this connection it was rightly recommended that the trade bodies should be given wider representations in the official delegations visiting foreign countries for concluding important agreements on preferential trade and promotion of free trade areas, etc.
These are indeed sound suggestions deserving of favourable response from the various ministries of the government.
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