LAHORE, Sept 25: The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) has called for scrapping of anti-dumping investigation initiated by the National Tariff Commission (NTC) against their nine polyester staple fibre (PSF) suppliers from three South East Asian nations in the larger national interest.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Aptma spokesman Akber Sheikh, Aptma Punjab chairman-elect Samir Saigol and Danish Mannoo said the possible imposition of anti-dumping duty on PSF imports would further jack up the cost of production, making Pakistan further non-competitive and reduce its use in textile exports.

“The cut in the use of PSF will result in the reduction of local PSF production and profitability of producers of synthetic fibre, which makes the entire exercise self-defeating,” they insisted.

The NTC launched anti-dumping investigation against the nine PSF suppliers from Thailand, Indonesia and Korea on August 9 on an application received in June from three local producers of synthetic fibre on behalf of the industry.

The investigation of dumping will cover the period from April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006 and of injury to the local producers from April 1, 2003 to March 31, 2006, during which merely 29,246 tons of PSF was imported against a local production of around 500,000 tons.

The complainants have requested imposition of 25 per cent anti-dumping duty on import of PSF from these sources. “In anticipation of imposition of possible anti-dumping duty on PSF originating from these countries, many textile spinners have already started exploring China for importing PSF,” the Aptma leaders said.

They said the government decision to remove import of PSF from the DTRE scheme in the budget for 2006-07 and subject its import to 6.5 per cent non-refundable duty even for re-export had already raised their cost of production.

Further, increase in the cost in the shape of anti-dumping duty would only throw the exporters of blended yarn and value added products from Pakistan out of international market.

They demanded that the government should re-induct import of PSF into the DTRE scheme for exporters and exempt any import under the scheme from anti-dumping duty. They claimed that no country ever imposed antidumping duty on a product/item imported for the purpose of re-export.

The Aptma leaders said many textile exporters imported PSF because of deterioration in the quality of local fibre. Moreover, some speciality fibres were not produced in Pakistan at all, they said.

They also demanded the government should appoint an agency to regulate the price of local PSF because its domestic producers fixed their rates like a cartel.

“If the local PSF producers need any financial support it should be provided to them by the government directly in a way that does not hurt the users of PSF and exporters of textile products,” they demanded.

They regretted that the entire PSF import regime was designed to protect the domestic PSF producers at the expense of textile exporters, as a consequence of which the ratio of PSF-cotton use in Pakistan had stagnated at 20:80 against the international ratio of 60:40.