RIYADH, 10 June — The permanent committee to fight market flooding has submitted two draft bills on anti-dumping to the higher authorities for approval.
Both the bills aim at protecting national industries in the light of the recent slashing of customs duties for imported goods to 5 percent. However, a 20 percent customs duty can be charged where the national industries need to be protected.
Fawaz Al-Alami, undersecretary for technical matters at the Commerce Ministry and head of the permanent committee for fighting market flooding, said the proposed bills seek to boost confidence in the national economy while they put in place measures to minimize damage to national industries.
The regulations also seek to create an investment climate to attract more foreign investments apart from stopping capital drain from the country and bringing back Saudi investments abroad.
The bill will enable local manufacturers to legally tackle the challenges posed by the flooding of local markets with cheaper foreign goods. The regulations deal with the consequences of dumping policies adopted by certain countries, Al-Alami said.
The anti-dumping committee set up under the directives of a ministerial committee headed by Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal will handle complaints against any producer flooding the local markets. Complaints from local manufacturers whose products have a share of more than 50 percent in the local market will be entertained.
The complaints should accompany, according to the new regulations, necessary information to prove that the flooding of a particular commodity has caused losses to the local manufacturers. Name of complainant, description of the item which is adversely affected, name and batch of the imported item, their countries of origin, lists of exporters or manufacturers of the commodity and its local importers, should also accompany the complaint.
The manufacturer flooding the market has to pay compensation which will be determined after assessing the extent of loss caused to the local industry. It will be the difference between the price of the product in the country of origin and the price in the local market. The committee’s decision can be challenged by the importer or the exporter in the Court of Complaints, according to the proposed regulations.
