February 14, 2007	Wednesday	Muharram 25, 1428

LAHORE, Feb 13: The National Tariff Commission’s decision to impose anti-dumping duty on import of polyester staple fibre (PSF) from Indonesia, Thailand and Korea will raise the domestic textile industry’s cost of production, adversely affecting PSF-based exports from Pakistan, says the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma).

“The NTC measure would not impact on the PSF exports of the three countries because Pakistan’s import of PSF stood at a paltry 30,000 tons, which is only five per cent of the entire annual local production of about 600,000 tons.

Pakistan is a very small market for the exporters of PSF,” Aptma’s WTO affairs expert Akber Sheikh said on Tuesday while commenting on the NTC decision.

“We shall also run the risk of commercial retaliation by the affected countries.”

Aptma has taken a serious notice of provisional anti- dumping measure on import of PSF imported from Indonesia, Thailand and Korea. It says the announcement of the measures has exposed numerous structural faults in Pakistan’s economic management system because there appear to be a dichotomy between different federal ministries as well as between departments within the same ministries.

“The measures have been taken despite assurances given by textile minister Mushtaq Cheema and commerce minister Humayun Akhtar Khan that no such decision would be made without consulting all stakeholders.”

The Aptma spokesman said the anti-dumping law as framed was in conflict with the constitution of Pakistan.

“As a matter of fact the law was framed without any consultation with the stakeholders and fails to address the peculiarities of Pakistan’s economy.

The relevant ministry has failed to recognise that Pakistan is a small market for foreign conglomerates who do not take due interest in the NTC’s proceedings resulting in findings that are detrimental to the domestic economy,” he said.

He said in the present case only five out of the 12 nominated exporters bothered to respond as their exports to Pakistan’s were miniscule.

He also recalled that the anti-dumping measures were relevant only in the context of consumption within the domestic market whereas in Pakistan the PSF imports were largely used for value addition for textile exports.

“Thus, the announced duty is anomalous and will hurt Pakistan’s exports.”

He said Aptma considered the indigenous PSF industry as an important part of the textile chain and would like to see it moving in tandem with the other sectors of the industry.