Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

The Parliamentary Committee has discussed the law “On anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguard measures” on April 7, as some MPs proposed to simplify the language of of the law.

This law is aimed at protecting the interests of the country and local producers and stipulates measures to prevent the damage or its threat, which applied by dumping or subsidized import to domestic producer and regulates antidumping implementation of compensatory measures and special duties.

The chairman of the parliamentary committee on economic policy, entrepreneurship and industry, Ziyad Samadzade, said that the text of the law is very complicated and difficult to understand.

Mirgasim Vahabov, head of the finance and currency regulation department at the State Customs Committee, also agreed that the draft law is difficult to understand, and, moreover, it has a lot of repetitions and conflicting paragraphs.

MP Ali Masimli, in turn, noted the necessity of getting other structures involved in the elaboration of the bill. “This bill cannot be developed only by one ministry as it addresses issues that affect the economic, customs, judicial and legal aspects,” Masimli explained, adding that entrepreneurs’ support is very important in resolving this issue.

If the bill is passed in this form, it will create a dual effect and can lead to rise of protectionism, which will have a negative impact on the industry, the MP added.

Following the meeting, the law was recommended for discussion at the plenary session of the Azerbaijani Parliament.

The law, which was adopted in the first reading on February 12, envisages preventing damage caused by the dumping policy, which occurs when manufacturers export a product to another country at a price either below the price charged in its home market or below its cost of production. This policy is carried out with various purposes, including penetration or strengthening in the new market and displacement of competitors.

In case of lack of similar goods in exporting country’s internal commodity turnover, or if the sale volume of these goods in the home market is less than five percent from the volume of its export, the above-mentioned law provides determination of the dumping margin by comparing goods’ export price with its export price in the third country.

Furthermore, if the exporting country conducted sale of these goods within at least six months (in volumes not less than 20 percent of the volume, which allows determining the normal cost of goods), it cannot form the basis for determining normal cost of goods, the law says.

The influence of the dumping or subsidized import on the local manufacturers will be defined by the analysis of the import volume, its influence on the cost of local goods, a difference between the price on the imported and local goods, as well as a dumping margin and some other indicators.

Appropriate anti-dumping measures can be applied only after careful researches and 60 days within the beginning of check.

Temporary measures such as anti-dumping or countervailing duties, or the monetary deposit equal to these duties, can only be taken after completion of the investigation into complaints of local manufacturers and only when the dumping policy causes material damage to the national industry. In general, anti-dumping and countervailing measures can be applied no more than five years.

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Nazrin Gadimova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @NazrinGadimova

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