Pakistan fires another salvo in cement duty dispute

Pakistan and South Africa
are set to hash out their
differences this week
following Pakistan’s lodging
of a formal dispute against
SA with the World Trade
Organisation in an attempt to
have the duties on its cement
imports lifted.
Consultations between
the respective governments
kicked off on Monday and
Pakistan is confident that it
has a strong case against what
it calls the unfair imposition
of anti-dumping duties of
up to 77% on four Pakistani
cement producers.
Commercial secretary to
the Trade Commission of
Pakistan, Qamar Zaman,
said: “We believe we have a
strong case.” According to
him, discussions between
the two countries have taken
place in the past six months.
This includes a meeting
between the Minister of Trade
and Industry, Dr Rob Davies,
and the Pakistani Minister of
Commerce, Khurram Dastgir
Khan, on the sidelines of a
WTO conference in Paris
earlier this year. “But the
meetings haven’t yielded
results,” said Zaman.
This is the second
complaint that has been
lodged. In August this year,
Lucky Cement – Pakistan’s
biggest cement exporter to
Africa – filed a case before the
Pretoria high court contesting
the provisional duties.
The duties were imposed
in May this year, following
a four-year investigation
by the International Trade
Administration Commission
(Itac) of South Africa.
The Itac report, which
recommended the high duties,
noted that an influx of cement
had caused “material injury”
to producers within the
Southern African Customs
Union.
Itac found that Portland
cement imports into SA had
soared by 664% between
2010 and 2013.
Foster Mohale, manager:
communication services
at Itac, told FTW that Itac
strongly disagreed with the
allegations made in the two
complaints.
“Itac conducted its
investigation strictly
according to the terms
of International Trade
Administration Commission
Act, 2002, Itac’s Anti-
Dumping Regulation (ADR)
and the WTO Anti-Dumping
Agreement,” said Mohale.
At the time of going to
press a decision had not yet
been made but the WTO has
the power to immediately
remove South Africa’s antidumping
duties should it
find that the imposition of
these were unlawful, said
South Africa Trade Law
Centre (Tralac) researcher,
Willemien Viljoen.