Published in The Daily Observer on Sunday, 1 June 2014.
Local firms to be protected against WTO rules: Mustafiz
The government should take a plenty of regulatory measures to protect local manufacturers from dumping as Bangladesh will have to waive regulatory duties including Supplementary Duty (SD) on important goods as per the guidelines of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a leading economist said on Saturday.
Professor Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a leading centre of excellence in South Asia, said the SD waiver would definitely encourage frequent dumping in Bangladesh from its competitors.
‘Waiver of regulatory duties will lead to reduction in ‘effective rate of protection’ for local manufacturing industry. We should take protectionary measures so the interest of domestic industries is protected,’ Prof Mustafiz said.
There will be no regulatory duties on imported goods after July 2015 in line with the guidelines of the WTO. Besides, SD too will almost be waived and it means that there will be no duties on 96 per cent imported goods. The economist said the government together with and the businessmen should deal with issue of SD waiver carefully keeping labour intensive industries and many new industries into consideration.
He said the SD duty was imposed for two reasons – increased revenue collection and protection of domestic industries. ‘Although SD waiver will help ease consumers, we should go for imposition of countervailing, anti-dumping and safeguard duties at that time,’ he said. But, CPD ED said it is true that it is not so easy to examine dumped products. In this regard, the researcher cited an example of some Indian products in Bangladesh.
SM Ashraful Alam, managing director of Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited (WHIL), said, ‘Of course, we will be in difficulty if the supplementary duty (SD) is waived from next year as per the compulsion of the WTO…. the government from now should mull over the issue since Bangladesh’s manufacturing base is not as matured enough.’ Bangladesh might witness terrible dumping from its competing countries when there will be no more regulatory duties and then local manufacturers will be the worst sufferers, he pointed out.
Published in The Financial Express
Regulatory measures sought to protect local manufacturers
The government should take a plenty of regulatory measures to protect local manufacturers from dumping as Bangladesh will have to waive regulatory duties including Supplementary Duty (SD) on important goods as per the guidelines of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a leading economist said on Saturday.
Professor Mustafizur Rahman, executive director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), a leading centre of excellence in South Asia, said the SD waiver would definitely encourage frequent dumping in Bangladesh from its competitors.
‘Waiver of regulatory duties will lead to reduction in ‘effective rate of protection’ for local manufacturing industry.
We should take protectionary measures so the interest of domestic industries is protected,’ Prof Mustafiz said. There will be no regulatory duties on imported goods after July 2015 in line with the guidelines of the WTO. Besides, SD too will almost be waived and it means that there will be no duties on 96 per cent imported goods.
The economist said the government together with and the businessmen should deal with issue of SD waiver carefully keeping labour intensive industries and many new industries into consideration. He said the SD duty was imposed for two reasons – increased revenue collection and protection of domestic industries.
‘Although SD waiver will help ease consumers, we should go for imposition of countervailing, anti-dumping and safeguard duties at that time,’ he said. But, CPD ED said it is true that it is not so easy to examine dumped products.
In this regard, the researcher cited an example of some Indian products in Bangladesh. SM Ashraful Alam, managing director of Walton Hi-Tech Industries Limited (WHIL), said, ‘Of course, we will be in difficulty if the supplementary duty (SD) is waived from next year as per the compulsion of the WTO…. the government from now should mull over the issue since Bangladesh’s manufacturing base is not as matured enough.’
Bangladesh might witness terrible dumping from its competing countries when there will be no more regulatory duties and then local manufacturers will be the worst sufferers, he pointed out, according to BSS.