Jute goods exporters have shown little interest towards a decision of the government to seek review of the anti-dumping duty imposed on Bangladeshi jute goods by India as they predict such review would bring no positive change.Rather, they demanded imposition of duty on export of raw jute on which India was highly dependent to run their industry to compel the country to withdraw the anti-dumping duty.The issue will be discussed at the meeting of the national advisory committee on jute to be held on Thursday at jute ministry. Officials of the commerce ministry said that they took the decision of filing review appeal against imposition of anti-dumping duty considering the adverse impact of the duty on export earnings from the sector from India.Stakeholders including exporters and their associations have also agreed with the decision. But, jute goods exporters were not providing data and supportive documents required for the review despite repeated requests though the decision of seeking review has been taken in a joint meeting between stakeholders and the ministry, they said.Bangladesh Jute Mills Association, however, said that seeking review would not bring any positive results as India has already expressed their stance in favour of the duty.BJMA on January 2 wrote a letter to secretary of jute ministry demanding imposition of duty at the rate of $ 352 per tonne on export of raw jute to India saying that it would force the country to withdraw the duty.India on January 5, 2017 imposed the duty ranging from $ 19 to $351.72 a tonne on import of jute products from Bangladesh for the next five years following an alleged dumping of the products in the Indian market by Bangladeshi exporters.Export of jute and jute goods to India slumped by 47.62 per cent in July-December of the current fiscal year 2017-2018 compared with that in the same period of last FY2016-2017 from the shock of the duty.Export earnings from jute and jute goods slipped to $55.81 million in six months of FY18 from $106.54 million in the same period of FY17.A country can file review appeal a year after the imposition of anti-dumping duty.In this context, Bangladesh Tariff Commission as per decision of the commerce ministry requested the 26 exporters twice, first by December 15, 2017 and second by January 4 this year, for providing supportive data and documents. The required information includes export price of jute goods during the period of investigation (PoI) by the Indian anti-dumping authorities, export price after the PoI, domestic price, taxes, cost of production, selling and administrative price, arguments in favour of review and audit report, among others.But only three exporters provided partial information which was not adequate for seeking review. A high official of the tariff commission told New Age that they would inform the ministry about the situation and take next steps as per decision of the ministry. The government could seek review of the duty at any time after one year of imposition of the duty, he said.He said that outcomes of the review might include withdrawal of the duty, reduction in the rate of duty and years of its applicability.BJMA secretary Abdul Barik Khan on Tuesday told New Age that seeking review would not bring any outcome as India will not withdraw the duty.The country did not even honor the discussion between the prime ministers’ level talk on the issue, he said. ‘India needs raw jute from Bangladesh to maximise their production of jute goods in a bid to meet demand of domestic market and export market,’ he said, adding that that is why they did not impose any duty on the item.Imposition of export duty at the rate of $ 352 per tonne of raw jute might compel the country to withdraw the anti-dumping duty as export duty would make the raw material expensive, he said. The association has already requested the jute ministry for taking steps in this connection, he added.He also said that exporters were reluctant to give information to the tariff commission as it sought many price and export sensitive information. Exporters felt that they might lose buyers to other competitors if the information was revealed in any way, he added.
