Secondary quality tinplates: stop charging definitive anti-dumping duties, customs to be told

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) will convey to the Collectors of Customs to stop charging definitive anti-dumping duties imposed on imports of the secondary quality tinplate from January 11, 2016. Sources said that the NTC has communicated the decision to the FBR for compliance. The customs department would communicate the decision to the field formations. The definitive anti-dumping duties on imports of the secondary quality tinplate have been terminated from January 11, 2016.
Accordingly, the Collectors of Customs would intimate ports for implementation of the decision from the said date. According to the details received at the FBR, NTC (the "Commission") has conducted a review ("Sunset Review") of anti-Dumping duties imposed on dumped imports of secondary quality tinplate of thickness of less than 0.5 mm and of width of 600mm or more imported into Pakistan from Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands and USA (the "Exporting Countries") under Section 58 of the Anti-Dumping Duties Act, 2015 (the "Act"). The Sunset Review was initiated on January 15, 2015 upon receipt of an application under Section 58(3) of the Act from Siddiqsons TinPlate Ltd, Karachi (the "Applicant"), a domestic producer of Secondary Quality Tinplate. The Commission had imposed anti-dumping duties with effect from July 16, 2009 for a period of five years on Secondary Quality Tinplate imported from the Exporting Countries. In accordance with the provisions of the Act and the Anti-Dumping Duties Rules, 2001 (the "Rules"), the Commission has conducted and concluded the Sunset Review as follows:
Product under Review: The product under review was Secondary Quality Tinplate, originating in and/or exported from the Exporting Countries and is classified under Pakistan Customs Tariff number 7210.1210. Period of Review (POR): The POR for this sunset review was from April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2014 Likely Volume of Dumped Imports: After imposition of antidumping duties on dumped imports of the investigated product (the product under review) the imports of Secondary Quality Tinplate from all sources declined drastically. This decline in imports was mainly because of reduction in demand/domestic market of Secondary Quality Tinplate due to shift in packaging of edible oil and petroleum lubricant oils from tin packaging to plastic/PET packaging.
Likelihood of Recurrence of Dumping from Exporting Countries: The Commission has determined that, although there is likelihood of continuation or recurrence of dumping of the product under review, however, there is no likelihood of increase in imports of the product under review as imports from all sources have declined drastically during last five years due to change in packaging of edible oil and petroleum lubricant oils from tinplate to plastic packaging, the NTC said. Un-likely Continuation or Recurrence of Injury to the Domestic Industry: The Commission has determined that the termination of antidumping duties imposed on imports of the product under review from the Exporting Countries will not lead to likely continuation or recurrence of the material injury to the domestic industry due to imports of the product under review because of the following:
Production and sales of the domestic like product has significantly declined despite imposition of antidumping duties on imports of the product under review as a result of significant decline in the market of Secondary Quality Tinplate due to replacement of tin packaging with plastic packaging.
The NTC said that there are no likely adverse effects on prices of the domestic industry due to imports of the product under review, as its landed cost is above the price of the domestic industry with and without incidence of the antidumping duties. Domestic industry''s production, capacity utilisation, sales and market share and profits have declined despite that the antidumping duties were in place during the POR. Injury factors other than dumped imports: The Commission has also examined factors other than dumped imports, and found that the domestic industry was/is affected due to contraction in demand and changes in the patterns of consumption, ie, from tin packaging to plastic packaging, etc.
Termination of definitive antidumping duties: In view of the above determination the Commission has terminated definitive anti-dumping duties imposed on imports of the secondary quality tinplate from the exporting countries from January 11, 2016, the NTC added.