ISLAMABAD, June 19: The government on Wednesday promulgated a safeguard measures ordinance that would protect indirectly the local industries.

Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood said here on Wednesday that the ordinance had been approved by the cabinet and would come into force immediately.

Mr Dawood said the ordinance would provide protection to the local industry by restricting the quotas of those products which were causing damage to the industry.

The minister cited the example of two products — caustic soda and acrylic fibre — the prices of which had declined on the international market and were causing continuous injuries to the production of local industry.

The minister said that some industries had already applied for protection, which would be decided in the light of rules of the ordinance.

There were certain rules and regulations for exporting any products to member countries of World Trade Organization, and violation of that rules were dealt under the safeguard law, he added.

The minister said the government had already promulgated an ordinance to amend and consolidate the law relating to imposition of anti-dumping on December 22, 2000. Similarly, he said another ordinance was promulgated to amend and consolidate the countervailing duties to offset subsidies on January 3, 2001.

Asked that following the promulgation of the ordinances, no follow-up work had been done, the minister said that in this regard the commerce ministry was in the process of hiring legal experts in the National Tariff Commission.

Responding to another question, Mr Dawood said that he would prefer to protect the local industry rather than allowing a “friendly country to do dumping in our market”.

Following the promulgation of these ordinances, the local industry would be given full protections under the WTO rules and regulations, the minister claimed.