The international forum of trade i.e. World Trade Organization (WTO) hasissued an order against Pakistan and in favor of the United Arab Emirates.
The global international organization (WTO) has recommended Pakistan towithdraw the anti-dumping measures it has imposed on BOPP film from theUnited Arab Emirates.
In this regard, the WTO has issued a report regarding Pakistan’s duties onBOPP film from the UAE.
On 18 January 2020, the WTO circulated the panel report in the case broughtby the United Arab Emirates in “Pakistan — Anti-Dumping Measures onBiaxially Oriented Polypropylene Film from the United Arab Emirates”.
According to the WTO report, Tri-Pack Films Limited (Tri-Pack Films) filedan application with Pakistan’s anti-dumping authority, the National TariffCommission (NTC), to initiate an investigation into imports of biaxiallyoriented polypropylene (BOPP) film from, among others, the United ArabEmirates. The NTC initiated an investigation on the basis of thatapplication.——————————
The NTC issued the preliminary determination in its second investigation ofimports of BOPP film. The commission found that BOPP film from the UnitedArab Emirates was being dumped in the Pakistani market, and imposeddefinitive anti-dumping duties at the rate of 29.70% for one UAE exporter,Taghleef Industries LLC (Taghleef), and 57.09% for all other UAE exporters,with effect until August 14, 2015.
The report said that the National Tariff Commission (NTC) had initiated asunset review of the anti-dumping measures on BOPP film from Pakistan on 4August 2015 and concluded it on 1 December 2016, i.e. almost 16 monthslater.877 Pakistan explains, and the NTC stated in its Report on sunsetdetermination, that this was because domestic judicial proceedings had ledto the suspension of all work of the NTC for a number of months in 2016.
Specifically, following litigation in unrelated anti-dumping proceedings,the Lahore High Court held that one member of the NTC did not meet thequalification requirements set forth in Pakistani law.
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The Lahore High Court, therefore, ordered the suspension of the proceedingsin the context of which the domestic legal challenge had been brought.
The NTC decided, “by analogy”, to suspend all pending anti-dumpingproceedings until the defect in its composition was cured, i.e. until 5September 2016 The United Arab Emirates argues that the NTC thus actedinconsistently with the second sentence of Article 11.4 of the Anti-DumpingAgreement, because it took more than 12 months to conclude the sunsetreview.
The WTO report stated that United Arab Emirates requests that, pursuant toArticle 19.1 of the DSU, the Panel recommends that Pakistan bring itsmeasures into conformity with its obligations under the Anti-DumpingAgreement and the GATT 1994.
Further, the United Arab Emirates requests that, pursuant to Article 19.1of the DSU, the Panel suggests that Pakistan “terminate the duties imposed”and “refund the anti-dumping duties collected”, in order to bring themeasures into conformity with its WTO obligations.
The United Arab Emirates argues that Pakistan acted inconsistently withArticles 5.2, 5.3, and 5.8 of the Anti-Dumping Agreement by initiating aninvestigation based on data that ended about two years earlier, incircumstances that did not justify doing so, and without explaining itsdecision to initiate based on remote data or acknowledging that the datawere remote.——————————
