KARACHI, April 8: Exporters of bedlinen have appealed to the government to immediately take up the issue of 13.1 per cent anti-dumping duty imposed by the European Union with the WTO Dispute Settlement Body. Rejecting an offer by the EU for fixing the anti-dumping free quota at around 35,000 tons or half of the current exports of bedlinen to EU member countries, the exporters in an official meeting held recently in Islamabad strongly demanded of the government to take the issue to the Dispute Settlement Body.
“At this stage we are not ready to accept this offer of fixing 35,000 tons exports of bedlinen without anti-dumping duty when we also have to pay 12 per cent customs duty after the withdrawal of GSP from December 31, 2004,” a leading exporter said.
When the duty was imposed in March last year Pakistan was enjoying exemption from 12 per cent customs duty under the EU’s GSP scheme. But since January 2005, bedlinen importers have to pay both customs as well as anti-dumping duties.
The exporters argue that after the withdrawal of GSP there remains no justification for imposing 13.1 per cent punitive duty and if at all the European Commission had to do so it should have imposed only 1.1 per cent to take the total impact to 13.1 per cent against the present 25.1 per cent that is enormous by any standard.
Pakistan Bedwear Exporters Association (PBEA) Chairman Shabir Ahmed told Dawn that the impact of 25.1 per cent duty had crippled bedlinen exports to European states, making them uncompetitive against exports of other countries.
“Yes, we have asked the government to take the matter to the Dispute Settlement Body at the earliest. And we have also rejected the offer by the EU for settling the matter by accepting 35,000 tons exports of bedlinen without anti-dumping duty,” he added.
“When the European Commission could allow duty-free imports of bedlinen to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and there is still demand for the product in the European market then why it is not giving this concession to Pakistan, a frontline state in the war against terrorism,” Mr Ahmed asserted.
He said that a similar offer was made by the EU prior to the imposition of anti-dumping and the quantity was as high as 60,000 tons and this was initially rejected by the exporters. However, in subsequent development the offer was accepted, but the EU backed out of it which even damaged their standing.
“We were ready to give assurance of controlling prices by fixing minimum export price, but this was also rejected by Eurocot, the representative body of the European textile industry.” Now the matter is in the cold storage and the offer by the EC to carry out review of the dispute is also not being completed as the investigation team of the EC expected in February unilaterally cancelled its visit to Pakistan, he maintained.
In reply to a query, Mr Ahmed said that all the stakeholders had jointly formed a committee that could look into the matter and also engaged a reputed lawyer to take up the case with the Dispute Settlement Body. He said the exporters were extremely annoyed over the adamant attitude of the EU for putting country’s bedlinen exports in jeopardy.
