KL probes anti-dumping

KL probes anti-dumping

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia launched an anti-dumping probe
yesterday concerning imports of "self copy paper" from France,
the United Kingdom and Indonesia.

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry said it had
received a joint petition from two local firms that these
countries were selling the products here at a price much lower
than in their domestic markets.

Self copy paper allows writing to be copied between two sheets
without the use of carbon paper.

"The petitioners had provided evidence that imports from the
alleged countries had increased significantly in terms of
quantity and market share," the ministry said in a statement.

The companies also claimed they were forced to lower their
prices to compete with these imports, and their profitability had
been affected.

"The government, having determined there is sufficient
evidence of dumping... has decided to commence investigations,"
the ministry said.

A preliminary decision would be made in 90 days whether there
would be a need to impose "anti-dumping duty at a level that
would eliminate the dumping", it said.

According to the ministry, the government could also backdate
the imposition of the duty to the date of the probe if it found
there was a sudden surge in imports of the product in lieu of the
imposition of the duty.

Malaysia is expected to register a trade deficit of 7.144
billion ringgit (US$2.8 billion) in 1996, a fall of nearly two
billion ringgit compared with last year, a government report said
last week.

Exports were expected to reach 219.727 billion ringgit against
imports of 226.871 billion ringgit.