The Cabinet on Wednesday approved a draft law that seeks to enhance the competitiveness of national products and combat harmful trade practices such as dumping, and referred it to the Advisory Council.
The decision was taken at the Cabinet's regular meeting at the Amiri Diwan on Wednesday, chaired by HE the Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.
Following the meeting, HE the Minister of Justice and Acting Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, Dr Hassan bin Lahdan al-Hassan al-Mohannadi, provided the details of the day’s proceedings.
The draft law on “supporting the competitiveness of national products and combating harmful practices in international trade” stipulates that its provisions shall apply “in a manner not inconsistent with the provisions of World Tarde Organisation (WTO) agreements”.
It defines harmful practices in international trade as dumping practices, ad hoc support and increases in imports. Further, the draft law defines dumping as exporting to the state a product whose export price is “below the normal value of a similar product in the exporting country in the normal course of trade”.
Under the provisions of the draft, a "committee for the support of competitiveness of national products and combating harmful practices in international trade" shall be established at the Ministry of Economy and Commerce. Its membership will comprise people with expertise in the area of WTO agreements along with representatives of the ministries and bodies concerned.
The committee's mandate is to examine complaints and violations of the provisions of this law, conduct investigations into complaints, prepare a report on the results of the investigation of complaints and propose interim and final measures necessary to protect national products.
By a decision of HE the Minister of Economy and Commerce, upon the recommendation of the committee, the minister may take the following measures as he may consider necessary, in a manner not inconsistent with the agreements issued by the organisation: anti-dumping and temporary compensatory measures; provisional preventive measures; anti-dumping and final compensatory measures in the form of charges or price undertakings not exceeding the margin of dumping or the amount of the definitively specified subsidy; and final preventive measures against the increase in imports in the form of quantitative, fee or other restrictions.
Upon the proposal of HE the Minister and the committee's recommendation, the Cabinet may take any measures it deems necessary to protect the national product.
New initiative
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