ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi, Tuesday, signed three bills including “The Trade Organization (Amendment) Bill, 2022” and “The Anti-Dumping Duties (Amendment) Bill, 2022’’ into law after passage from the Parliament.

The third bill signed by the president is, “The Torture and Custodial Death (Prevention and Punishment) Bill, 2022”. The president approved the three bills under Article 75 of the Constitution of Pakistan.

According to “The Trade Organization (Amendment) Bill, 2022”, the tenure of current office-bearers of all trade organisations has been increased from one year to two years. The joint sitting of the Parliament had approved, “The Trade Organization (Amendment) Bill, 2022” with a minor amendment on October 11, 2022.

After the amendment, the sub-clause (2) of the bill described as “It shall come into force at once and shall be deemed to have taken effect on and from 1st January, 2022.”

According to objects and reasons of the bill, “the Trade Organizations are backbone of the economy of any country. It resolves the issue of trade, industry and safeguards the interests of the private sector through constant dialogue with the government. The current tenure of the office-bearers of all trade organizations is one year which is too short to serve the organization by the chosen representative in an efficient manner.”

According to objects and reasons of “The Anti-Dumping Duties (Amendment) Bill, 2022”, the National Tariff Commission (NTC) could not issue the request Certificate of Exemption as there is no provision in the Anti-Dumping Duties Act, 2015, which allows exemption of anti-dumping duty in such cases.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022