FAISALABAD: The National Tariff Commission (NTC) director has stressed the need for proper awareness among the exporters to help avoid the imposition of anti-dumping duties (AD) on Pakistani textile by various countries.

He was addressing the participants of a training workshop organized by the Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) here Saturday. He said AD duty was imposed by different countries against Pakistani textiles at different times in the past.

Elaborating the issue, he said European Union (EU) imposed AD duty on Pakistani bed linen twice. Firstly, the duty was imposed for a period of five years in 1996 and again from 2004 to 2009. Similarly South Africa also imposed a duty of 43per cent on bed sheet exports from Pakistan twice for the same periods. He went on to say that Peru had imposed 33per cent AD duty in the first period while for the second period a fixed AD duty of Dollar 1.14 had been imposed.

Regarding AD duty in Peru, he said that period was expiring in 2009 and a Sunset review of the duty imposed was being undertaken.

He emphasized that AD duty has been imposed because of the non compliance of the exporters about questionnaire of Peru authorities.

He stressed that if the exporters cooperated and furnished complete information to the country going to impose AD duty well in time, the likelihood of removal and avoidance of this duty was greater.

Elaborating, he said that Peru authorities because of non availability of information and lack of feedback from Pakistani exporters surmised the duty of Dollar 1.14 basing on incorrect information downloaded from a website. Therefore the need for a serious approach and compliance to the questionnaires was imperative.

He also emphasized the proper application and compliance of the rules and regulations of AD laws with the help of which duty in many cases could be avoided.

Mr. Naseer Ahmed Director Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) presided over this training session.

By Dawn Staff Correspondent

Source: www.dawn.com