These laws provide contingent protection to domestic industries from unfair practice of dumping, subsidized imports and against sudden surge/influx of imports through imposition of measures. It may appear to be simply an exercise of identification of the issue to concerned governmental agency who would take action. In reality, it involves a series of complex substantive and procedural steps where the domestic industry lodges a formal complain against foreign exporters/producers followed by a detailed investigating procedure with parties afforded ample opportunities for defense of their interests. All this has to be done within the rules of the multilateral rules-based trading system and, therefore, the domestic laws are required to be in strict conformity with the respective WTO agreements.
In Pakistan, National Tariff Commission (the “Commission”) established under the National Tariff Commission Act, 1990 is the principal investigating and relief granting authority under trade remedy laws. In case of anti-dumping and countervailing, the Commission has the sole authority to impose duties, whereas, in case of safeguards, the Commission conducts investigations and submits its recommendations to the Federal Government for further action/decision. |
