KARACHI, Aug 3: The European Commission has initiated partial interim review of the anti-dumping measures on bedlinen imports from Pakistan.
The imposition of 13.1 per cent punitive duty by the commission early this year was agitated by exporters on the grounds that the duty was imposed on the basis of incomplete investigation.
The bedlinen exporters argued that without completing the investigation the EC could not impose punitive duty on their product at import stage. Consequently, the EC exactly one month after the imposition of the duty took a suo moto decision and offered for a review of its decision to impose duty on imports of bedlinen from Pakistan.
The commission in its official journal issued a notice for the initiation of a partial interim review of the anti-dumping measures applicable to imports of cotton-type bedlinen from Pakistan. It stated: "The commission has decided on its own to initiate a partial interim review pursuant to Article 11 (3) of Council Regulation (EC) No384/96.
The European Commission on March 5 this year imposed a 13.1 per cent definitive anti-dumping duty for a period of five years on imports of cotton-type bedlinen originating from Pakistan.
However, it is quite interesting that the commission for the first time has officially accepted the fact, though in its own way, that "as part of its investigation which led to the imposition of the existing measures, the commission had planned to visit the premises of a sample of Pakistani exporters of the product concerned.
However, during the course of the visits, the commission considered that the necessary security conditions to carry out the planned verifications were not met and the visits had, therefore, to be interrupted."
Consequently, the dumping margin was calculated on the basis of facts available in accordance with Article 18 of the Basic Regulation. This has been admitted by the commission while giving grounds for the interim review.
The exporters at that time had agitated against the sudden withdrawal of the EC's investigation team. The EC team had only conducted sample survey of one company out of five planned, for the purpose of verification but rushed back home, leaving the investigation incomplete.
The commission has also admitted that at present sufficient information has been received, indicating that the security circumstances have changed i.e. the above impediment to the conduct of verification visit has been removed.
Therefore, the commission exceptionally proposes to initiate an interim review, limited to dumping aspects in order to give the opportunity to Pakistani exporters to help the EU carry out investigations which better reflect their situation.
The bedlinen exporters say that whatever happened in the past could be left behind. "This, however, reflects the magnanimity of the commission for not only providing the opportunity to rectify past errors or omission, if committed any, but has also limited the scope of the interim review to dumping aspect." This means that the commission will not be taking the 'injury' part of the dumping which is a normal practice for such investigations.
The commission has given a 15-day time to the exporters and manufacturers of bedlinen to the EU markets for extending and assuring their cooperation in the investigation.
The commission has also fixed the sampling period for the investigation between April 1, 2003 and March 31, 2004. It is also seeking, inter alia, production figures, turnover in local currency and stocks during this period.
A leading bedlinen exporter said: "We should hope that both the sides will not be repeating their past mistakes and should work together for reaching to a just and fair decision."
