The establishment of appellate tribunal, approved last week by the cabinet, for hearing appeals against decisions of National Tariff Commission (NTC) would lead to meeting WTO obligations with regard to the Trade Defence Laws which are obligatory for WTO member countries.
In order to implement various provisions of Anti-dumping Duties Ordinance, 2000, the Government of Pakistan is obliged to establish an appellate tribunal as per section 64 of the Ordinance to whom any interested party may prefer an appeal against decisions of NTC.
According to Engr. M.A. Jabbar, former vice-president, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) and In-charge WTO Resource Centre, the conditions in which such an appeal may be preferred include an affirmative or a negative final determination by NTC, and any final determination pursuant a review.
"I have been urging for early establishment of appellate tribunal but the Government of Pakistan (GoP) and the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), apprehending more cases against the dumping of Chinese goods, on political consideration preferred a judicial less system," he said.
Even NTC was not encouraging people to come forward for defending our domestic interests. Domestic interests mean that we have to check the dumping of imports which makes our industry price un-competitive. Due to this, we lose the domestic manufactured sales share against the cheaper imported products, which are dumped. Trade circles feel that GoP, MoC and the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) should appropriately allocate funds for guiding SMEs, including sponsorship to file cases against continued import of grossly under-invoiced and dumped nature of Chinese and other origin goods in Pakistan.
Sometime back an appellate tribunal was established by the government for a period of 6-12 months, comprising a judge of the Supreme Court as chairman and members from government departments. This tribunal neither could formalise its rules nor any appeal was made to it. After its expiry no serious effort was made at any level to establish it again for reasons best known to the government.
Hence for the last many years there is no appellate tribunal to hear appeals, if any, against final determinations/decisions of NTC in anti-dumping cases finalised so far. Thus technically, the Ordinance is not being fully implemented in accordance with the WTO obligations. Engr. Jabbar highlighted following major implications in the absence of appellate tribunal:
-- No appellate forum is provided to the aggrieved interested parties against the decisions/final determination of the NTC.
-- NTC has now made reasonable number of final determinations and mostly it is claimed by the NTC that uptill now no interested party has so far appealed against the decisions of the NTC. Such a claim in the absence of tribunal in not justified.
-- In a few anti-dumping investigations large number of petitions were filed in the high court against the NTC decisions/practices which have eaten up funds and time, not only of NTC, but also of contesting parties without any result.
-- NTC decisions cannot remain transparent unless appellate tribunal is provided for hearing appeals against its decisions. In the absence of such a body, there is no system to check and balance on the determinations undertaken by the NTC.
-- Since mostly the aggrieved parties in these cases are domestic industries, their profitability, protection against unfair trade practices, employment and future expansions are adversely affected in the absence of an appellate tribunal.
NTC decisions in acceptance or non-acceptance and initiation or non-initiation of anti-dumping cases should be subject to appeal before the tribunal so that it becomes more responsible in saying 'no' to any applicant domestic industry, said Engr. Jabbar.
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