The National Tariff Commission (NTC) has imposed provisional antidumping duty on the import of polyester filament yarn (PFY) from Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia and Thailand after fulfilment of legal formalities in consultation of all the relevant departments.
Dispelling impression created by the tax authorities, officials told Business Recorder on Sunday that the NTC had timely informed the CBR about the investigation of dumping of PFY into Pakistan. NTC had conveyed to the tax authorities to submit their viewpoint on the issue, but the CBR was unable to pursue the case, they added.
Obviously, the NTC could not force the CBR to submit comments on a specific issue. The commission had completed all the legal formalities of consulting CBR for levying this duty on PFY.
It is surprising to note that how the tax authorities could claim that NTC has unilaterally imposed this duty on the import of PFY. NTC is an independent department, which has always consulted the tax authorities whenever required. However, it is also the duty of the tax department to timely take action on such sensitive issues, officials added.
They said that the dumping was considered an unfair trade practice under the Anti-Dumping Duties Ordinance, 2000 as well as the WTO agreement on antidumping if it caused or threatened to cause material injury to the domestic industry producing like product.
The commission is empowered to carry out antidumping investigation and, if an affirmative preliminary or final determination of dumping and injury is made, to impose appropriate antidumping duty.
The Commission is conducting this investigation strictly in accordance with the provisions of the Ordinance and the WTO Agreement of antidumping. The Ordinance and the Agreement provides protection to the domestic industry from unfair trade practice ie dumping in the emerging regime of trade liberalisation. It is worth mentioning here that all the member countries of WTO follow a similar procedure for an antidumping investigation.
In accordance with the Ordinance and the Agreement, the Commission under Section 23 of the Ordinance, upon examining the accuracy and adequacy of the evidence provided in the application established that there was sufficient evidence of alleged dumping and injury to justify initiation of an investigation.
Consequently, the Commission initiated an investigation on May 12, 2005 and, in terms of Section 27 of the Ordinance issued a notice of initiation, which was published in the Official Gazette.
The Commission notified the embassies of the exporting countries in Pakistan on May 12, 2005. Copies of notice of initiation were also sent to the exporters/foreign producers of the exporting countries, Pakistani importers, and the applicant on May 12, 2005, in accordance with the requirements of Section 27 of the Ordinance. The notice of initiation was also sent to the relevant government departments, including Ministry of Finance.
In order to gather information and provide full opportunity to other parties, who may have an interest in this investigation to defend, the Commission under Anti-Dumping Rules 2001 sent questionnaires alongwith full text of the written application to exporters/foreign producers and the Pakistani importers of PFY among others on May 31, 2005 and May 14, 2005 respectively.
The Commission thereafter examined and analysed the information received from all interested parties to the investigation. Based on its analysis, the Commission has made a preliminary determination that PFY classified under Pakistan Customs Tariff Code 5402.3300 and 5402.4300 is being exported to Pakistan at dumped prices (being a price less than the normal value of the product, ie, the price at which it is sold in exporting countries in the ordinary course of trade) by exporters/producers from the exporting countries.
Consequent upon its preliminary determination of dumping, injury and causal link, the Commission has imposed provisional antidumping duties ranging from 0 percent to 36.56 percent (equal to the amount of provisional dumping margins established) on dumped imports of PFY for a period of 4 months with effect from November 12 2005.
It may be noted that no antidumping duty is imposed on considerable part of imports of PFY ie approximately 33 percent from Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and other sources, which were found not to be dumped or whose dumping margin is deminimis (less than 2 percent) during the period of investigation.
After the preliminary determination, the Commission has afforded an opportunity to all the foreign producers/exporters, who were not selected in "sampling" to seek an individual dumping margin in terms of Section 14(4) of the Ordinance.
Any such foreign producer/exporter would need to submit necessary information to the Commission within a period of fifteen days from the date of publication of notice of preliminary determination. In response to this offer some exporters/foreign producers have approached the Commission for individual dumping margins, which may lead to a lower rate of duty or zero duty.
Interested parties can also submit briefs containing their views on a particular issue or issues to the Commission upto 30 days before the date of final determination as per law.
The officials said that upon request by the Pakistan Filament Yarn Merchants Association, a hearing in this investigation was scheduled for December 27, 2005 at the offices of the Commission. All interested parties, including the importers, had been invited for the hearing.
The Commission shall make the final determination no later than 6 months from the date of publication of notice of preliminary determination. If the final determination is affirmative (domestic price of like product in the exporting country is higher than its export price and injury to the domestic industry is also found to exist and a causal link between dumping and injury is affirmed), then the Ordinance stipulates that the Commission may impose final antidumping duty on the dumped imports equivalent to the dumping margin, for a period of upto five years.
The commission has made preliminary determination in this investigation and has imposed provisional antidumping duty on dumped imports of PFY for a period of four months. The Commission would welcome views/comments and information from any interested party, including the importers to reach at a fair final determination of dumping and injury, officials added.
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