ISLAMABAD, March 6: The government has asked the European Union to review the 13.1 per cent anti-dumping duty on Pakistani bedlinen. Addressing a new conference here on Saturday, Secretary Commerce, Kamal Afsar said that commerce minister has written a letter to the EU Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy for re- considering the levy of anti-dumping duty on Pakistan's bed- linen, which he said would cause harm to the export of the commodity to the European markets.

He termed the duty as 'unjust and unfair', which he said based on the investigation of a single company. The duty became effective from March 5.

"We will take up the matter at all foras. Pakistan's case is very strong. I am hopeful the matter would ultimately go in our favour, even if it is taken to appeal at Luxembourg and taken up at WTO," he remarked.

According to the secretary, there was a great demand of Pakistan's bed-linen in the EU markets due to its quality and competitiveness but he said the levy of anti-dumping duty on bed- linen would make the commodity less competitive with those of the other countries.

Answering a question, he said that if concession of more than 10 per cent to Pakistan under GSP scheme was withdrawn, textile products exports to EU would suffer a lot.

To another question, he said that following the accession of 10 more countries to the club of EU it might be possible to get favour of more countries in reviewing of the decision.

Elaborating the trade figures, the secretary said that exports registered a growth of 13.8 per cent during the July-Feb period of the current financial year over the same period of last year. And imports registered an increase of 17.2 per cent during the period under review, he said.

The secretary said that the increase in the imports during the July-February period showed that economic activities were constantly on rise.

He said that the statistics showed that around 23 per cent increase was registered in the import of machinery and raw materials during the period under review over the same period of last year.

Replying to a question, the secretary said that it was not possible for Pakistan to grant India MFN status because according to him India was one of the country in the region where the non- tariff barriers were restricting imports from the neighbouring countries.

He said despite the fact that India has granted MFN status to Pakistan, "our exports have not registered that growth which one should expect."

To another question, he said that the signing of PTA with Iran would help in increasing the bilateral trade between the two countries.