January 13, 2007	Saturday	Zilhaj 22, 1427

KARACHI, Jan 12: Minister for Commerce Humyaun Akhtar Khan has said that Pakistan is to take the issue of anti-dumping duty imposed by the European Union (EU) on imports of bedlinen in 2004 and its discriminatory GSP plus scheme to the WTO Dispute Settlement Commission (DSC).

Briefing the newsmen after chairing the second steering committee meeting of Pakistan Expo 2007 here on Friday, the minister said that the government was going to put up the case before the DSC.

He categorically said that the ‘chain investigation’ carried out by the European Commission (EC) against Pakistani bedlinen imports were totally wrong and the government was moving ahead to challenge it in the WTO.

“The government has already taken legal advice on both the issues of anti-dumping duty as well as discriminatory GSP plus scheme which puts Pakistan’s exports at disadvantageous position against its competitors,” the minister maintained.

The minister further said that Pakistan had strong objection to “similarly situated countries are treated differently in current GSP plus criterion.”

The EC imposed punitive duty of 13.1 per cent in early 2004, but on the intervention of the commerce minister it was immediately put for a partial review.

Subsequently, the EC sent a team to Dubai for completing the investigations left half-way by the EU team during their visit to Pakistan owing to the security problem.

All sample companies were asked to carry their records and relevant documents to Dubai needed to evaluate the level of injury, if any, caused to the European textile industry, represented by Eurocoton. In the first disclosure of the interim review, the EC had proposed cutting down of punitive duty from 13.1 per cent to 9.9 per cent.

However, Pakistan again took up the matter at all forums with the EU and strongly pleaded for a total withdrawal of the duty. Consequently, the EU in March last year went for voting which resulted in favour of Pakistan.

Majority of the 25 members of the EU gave their consent in favour of a further slash of 1.8 per cent which brought down the national average punitive duty rate to 5.8 per cent on imports of bedlinen from Pakistan.