The Federal National Council on Tuesday passed a draft law concerning anti-dumping duties — a protectionist tariff that the government may impose on imports that it believes are priced below fair market value.

To protect the national industries and local businesses and markets, the new anti-dumping law allows the government to impose duties on products it believes are being “dumped” in our national market, Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy told the House. Al Mansouri said the law also allows the Government to impose countervailing duties to counteract artificially low prices that are a result of subsidies.

Governments often offer subsidies on exports in the form of tax breaks and credits. Because of these subsidies, exporters are able to offer lower prices than domestic producers in the importing country. Countervailing duties level the playing field and negate the advantage that exporters get from subsidies. Antidumping and countervailing duties go hand in hand. In fact, a petitioner can file both antidumping and countervailing duty petitions as a single document.

Regionally, Al Mansouri noted that the six GCC countries are bound by an ant-dumping law issued in 2010. The UAE also signed an anti-dumping agreement with the World Trade Organisation in 1997.

The minister added GCC countries are actively investigating offenders to protect new and growing industries from a flood of cheap imports as they want to diversify their economies by establishing their own industrial platforms

However, as their economies expand, the GCC countries have also attracted a flood of cheap imports that compete with local manufacturers.

Experts said that the current provisions of the GCC law does not consider any violation has occurred when the goods moved from a Gulf state to another. It also called for government departments and the private sector to support local products to minimise the negative effects of dumping.

The impact of dumping on the local industry shall be investigated through the examination of actual and probable drop in sales, revenues, market share, productivity and investment returns.

It will also consider factors affecting local prices, the volume of products being dumped, actual and probable problems of cash flow, stocks, employees, wages, growth and the ability to collect capital and investments.

The draft law requires the final approval of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan before it is enforced.

It will take effect immediately after publishing in the official gazette

source : gulfnews