ISLAMABAD, July 11: The National Tariff Commission (NTC) has initiated 24 anti-dumping investigations during the last few years in order to provide protection to the local industries.

These duties have been imposed in respect of different products having been dumped in the country during the last years.

An official announcement issued here on Wednesday said the NTC imposed anti-dumping duty on various products like Tinplate, Sorbitol, Glacial Acetic Acid, Acrylic Tow, Urea Formaldehyde Compound (UFMC), Polyester Filament Yarn, Pthalic Anhydride, Formic Acid, Ceramic Tiles and Polyester Staple Fibre dumped imports from South Africa, France, Indonesia, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, Iran, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Germany and Finland.

The NTC’s actions have been governed by the two disciplines of transparent due process as well as the timeline prescribed under the trade defence laws and the relevant WTO Agreements.

NTC’s observance of due process in these cases has been upheld in all of the writ petitions and other legal challenges (over 60) by the superior courts. None of the member governments of exporters’ countries involved in the cases where NTC imposed anti-dumping duties, had recourse to the Dispute Settlement Board (DSB) in the WTO. This again may be a reflection of the professional approach of the commission.

It may be added that ‘zeroing’ is a term used for a particular though controversial methodology for calculation of dumping margins in different situations of aggregation of transactions; there are several WTO Panel rulings as well as two WTO Appellate Body decisions and considerable accounting and legal input is required in any examination of issues.

The NTC was established in 1990 to provide adequate protection to domestic industry for improving its competitiveness and promoting exports.