Minister for Commerce Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan on Monday said that National Tariff Commission (NTC) will have suo motu powers on certain issues pertaining to anti-dumping and countervailing under its new laws. Speaking at a press conference, he said that NTC is now fully functional as it has revamped its structure and provision of required human, financial and technical resources.
He continued that the body has been further empowered through amendments in trade and custom laws which were passed by the parliament and it will safeguard the trade interest of the country. The commission comprising a chairman and five members has become fully operational, he said, adding the NTC is fully independent body which will play its due role in the anti-dumping and countervailing matters being faced by Pakistani industry in one way or the other.
The minister further said that the commission will also give its opinion on tariff and policymaking matters. In certain matters, he added, the commission will also have the powers to take suo motu notices if needed. Dastgir mentioned that NTC could not play its role in the past due to which it has been completely revamped so that it can do its job in a more efficient manner. "The budget of the commission has been doubled with maximum number of its members so that there will be no issue of quorum any time in absence of one or two members," he added.
He said that NTC will also conduct research on certain relevant issues and will guide the ministry on different policymaking process. Talking about the under invoicing issues, the minister said that this issue does not come directly under the purview of NTC. However, the government has taken up the issue with some countries particularly China. "Both the countries have agreed to use instrument of electronic data exchange to overcome this issue," he noted.
To a question, he said that the recent convoys of over 100 containers - the first batch of the consignment under CPEC - were allowed under a special arrangement without charging transit fee in absence of a Transit Trade Agreement (TSA) between the two countries. However, he said that in future, once the volume of trade increases, the two sides will sign a special transit agreement.
Responding to a question on trade with India amid the tension between the two countries, he said that there is no major trade regime change as far as the two countries are concerned. However, he accepted that no optimism prevails as far as future trade promotion between the two countries is concerned.
NTC chairman Qasim Niaz said that after increasing the number of its members from three to five, there will be no quorum issue in future. He advised the industry to approach the NTC for addressing their grievances on anti-dumping and countervailing issues. About the pending cases, he said that at present there are cases of 16 products against 32 countries in addition to sunset cases of five products against 19 countries. "These include mostly steel, paper, yarn acid, etc", he added.