February 24, 2006	Friday	Muharram 25, 1427

KARACHI, Feb 23: The European Commission is expected to further reduce anti-dumping duty of 13.1 imposed on Pakistan’s bedlinen about two years ago on a complaint lodged by Eurocoton that it was causing injury to its member textile units.

The national average punitive duty is expected to be lowered by another 1.8 percentage point at 5.8 per cent, while individual cooperative and sample companies have been also given some further cut in the duty.

According to a message received here, the EC was recommending a further cut in the anti-dumping duty on bedlinen imports from Pakistan and this will be put before the EU member states on March 9, 2006 to get their approval.

“If all goes well and the member states give their consent on the recommended duty cuts, the EC will release the decision of final disclosure in its official journal within a period of one month to give it official status,” a textile consultant told Dawn.

On a strong protest from bedlinen exporters and objection from the government of Pakistan with regard to incomplete verification of sample companies, the EC on August 3, 2004 called for partial interim review, limited to dumping, of the anti-dumping measures imposed through the Council Regulation (EC) No.397, 2004.

In the first disclosure of the interim review, the EC proposed cutting down of punitive duty from 13.1 per cent to 9.9 per cent, but some exporters and the government of Pakistan raised objections within a stipulated period allowed under the EC regulations.

Similarly, in the second disclosure of the interim review, the EC further lowered the anti-dumping duty by 5.5 per cent to 7.6 per cent after finding that dumping margins were still lower than the injury margin to its domestic textile industry.

However, reports indicate that the commission has now recommended a further cut in these duties, with national average cut by another 1.8 per cent to 5.8 per cent for all companies that remained outside the purview of investigation or known to be cooperative units.

However, eight sample companies, selected for investigation and that cater to 31 per cent of Pakistan’s exports to the European market, are also being recommended duty cut on individual basis.

The following companies were investigated and are expected to be given further duty cut on individual basis in the final disclosure of the interim review by the European Commission: Gul Ahmed Textile 5.6 per cent from 6.8 per cent of second disclosure, Nishat Mills 6.1 per cent (9.5 per cent), Al-Abid 3.9 per cent (3.4 per cent), Mohammad Farooq Textile Mills 3.5 per cent (3.5 per cent), Younus Textile 8.5 per cent (8.5 per cent), Chenab 5.7 per cent (12.7 per cent), Lucky 7.2 per cent (8.8 per cent) and Fair Deal continues to enjoy zero duty.

Appreciating the EC decision, leading exporters of bedlinen said that this would help the hard-pressed industry get some relief, as the cost of production in the country had been consistently increasing and almost eroded the profit margin of the textile industry.

“It will help to keep a large workforce on jobs and provide livelihood to millions of poor families who mostly depend on the textile industry,” observed a textile industry analyst.