The high-level technical panel will work and coordinate with an international consulting office to explain the position of the Saudi government and exporters, a top official said here.
The announcement follows the EU’s recent move to launch an investigation against Saudi exporters of the polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
A notice of anti-subsidy proceeding concerning imports of certain polyethylene terephthalate has already been published.
“The Ministry of Commerce has received complaints against the Kingdom by the European Union, claiming that the Saudi producers of petrochemicals receive unfair support from the Saudi government in PET exports that contravenes the provisions of the agreement made by the World Trade Organization,” said deputy Commerce and Industry Minister Mohammed Al-Kathiri.
The PET market of the EU, where Saudi PET are allegedly being dumped, exceeds $4.1 billion annually.
According to the notice of the European Commission, a copy of which was made available to Arab News, “the European Commission had initiated anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations following a complaint by the Committee of PET Manufacturers in Europe with respect to imports of PET originating in or exported from Oman and Saudi Arabia.”
“It is alleged that the sole producer of the product under investigation originating in Saudi Arabia has benefited from a number of subsidies granted by the Saudi government,” said the notice.
Al-Kathiri said the EU had opened two investigation cases against PET products exported from the Kingdom to EU states.
An allegation has been made against the Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) that the company allegedly dumps products in EU markets.
To this end, it must be noted that the SABIC and its affiliated company Ibn Rushd are studying the complaints and are coordinating with the Saudi government agencies in preparing their response.
SABIC is the largest PET producer in the Kingdom through its subsidiary Ibn Rushd.
It is too early, however, to assess the effect of the possibility of the EU imposing tariffs against Saudi Arabia and Oman on material. The EU claims its producers may be affected by subsidies and price undercutting.
The European bloc has threatened to impose tariffs against PET.
The inquiries will determine whether EU producers of PET have suffered “injury” as a result of any unfair Saudi competition, according to an EC statement.
In 2010, the EU imposed anti-subsidy tariffs on PET from Iran, Pakistan and the UAE for five years and renewed PET anti-dumping levies against China until late 2015 to curb import competition for European producers including Spain’s Novapet.
In 2007, the bloc re-imposed for five years anti-dumping duties on PET from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan as well as separate anti-subsidy levies against India.
Under EU rules, the commission can impose provisional anti-subsidy duties for four months and provisional anti-dumping levies for six months.
The EU’s national governments — acting on a commission proposal — can turn those measures into “definitive” five-year duties at the same or different rates.
