ISLAMABAD, March 9: The National Tariff Commission (NTC) on Thursday imposed provisional anti-dumping duties on export of formic acid to Pakistan by two exporters one each from Finland and Germany, for a period of four months.

An official said the duties were imposed on two specific exporters — 16.49 per cent on Kemira of Finland and 6.16 per cent on BASF of Germany. The export of the commodity from other exporters of the two countries will be exempted from the levy of anti-dumping duties.

The NTC had initiated the investigation on September 8, 2005 into dumping of formic acid 85 per cent into Pakistan by these exporters. The investigation was initiated in response to an application filed by a domestic producer of FA 85 per cent — Tufail Chemical Industries Ltd, Lahore — under the Pakistan Anti-Dumping Duties Ordinance, 2000.

The applicant identified two exporters/producers from Finland and Germany involved in the dumping of FA 85 per cent into Pakistan.

An official announcement said the law provided an opportunity to interested parties to present their views in a hearing. The interested parties can also submit briefs containing their views on a particular issue or issues to the NTC up to 30 days before the date of final determination.

Imports of FA 85 per cent to Pakistan during the past three years have been used chiefly as an input in leather, pharmaceutical, food and textile industries.

Under the ordinance, the NTC shall make the final determination no later than 180 days from the date of publication of notice of preliminary determination. If the final determination is affirmative, then the ordinance stipulates that the NTC may impose final anti-dumping duty on the dumped imports equivalent to the dumping margin, for a period of up to five years.

This is the ninth investigation conducted under the ordinance and the NTC has imposed provisional anti-dumping duties involving 15 actions.

The previous cases included exporters of various products from South Africa, Indonesia, France, Taiwan, South Korea, Iran, Uzbekistan, China, Malaysia, Thailand and India.