August 21, 2002	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Saani 11,1423

KARACHI, Aug 20: The European Commission (EC) is planning to reimpose anti-dumping duties ranging from 2.7 per cent to 27.7 per cent on bedlinen imports from India.

According to EC’s disclosure document, the commission is seeking re-imposition of punitive duties which are even much higher than 7 per cent to 20 per cent that prevailed from 1997 to August 2001, when the appellate body of WTO abrogated it.

The document further disclosed that EC has indicated that the average rate of duty for cooperating Indian bedlinen companies/exporters could be around 13.8 per cent.

Bedlinen exporters from Pakistan could capture the lost market left by Indian exporters, particularly when the European Union (EU) has increased textile quota by 15 per cent and removed customs tariffs on imports from Pakistan.

The EC on February 13, 2002 took up the review request submitted by the Committee of the Cotton and Allied Textile Industries of the European Communities (Eurocoton), the complainant in the original investigation.

The review investigation disclosed that imports from Indian, taken in isolation, increased from 11,845 tons in 1992 to 18,428 tons during the investigation period resulting in material injury to the community i.e. European industry.

Normally it takes eight to nine months to impose such punitive duties and one month would be given to India to file its objection over the EC’s decision.

The commission review also noted that imports from India grew most in the period from 1994 to the investigation period i.e. July 1, 1995 to June 30, 1996. On the other hand prices of Indian bedlinen during the base period (Jan 1, 1992) decreased significantly.

The EC in 1997, imposed a definitive anti-dumping duty on imports of cotton-type bedlinen from Egypt, India and Pakistan. Later the commission suspended the application of punitive duty with regard to imports from Egypt and terminated the proceeding against Pakistan.

It had been further revealed that whilst prices of Egyptian imports, which represented a fairly small market share as compared to Pakistan and India, had slightly decreased by two per cent during the base period, while Pakistani prices had risen.

Furthermore, Pakistani bedlinen prices on an average remained higher than Indian prices during the period. Similarly during the investigation period and based on data collected from sampled companies on similar types of bedlinen it was found that in many instances and for large quantities, Pakistani products were sold at prices higher than those charged by Indian producers.

Therefore, the commission was of the view that in the period from 1994 to the investigation period, Pakistani prices had decreased by two per cent whereas Indian bedlinen prices lowered by as much as 25 per cent.