Hidden-hand blocking Sri Lanka’s antidumping law?

Despite numerous assurances given that a new Bill would be passed to protect the domestic produce from cheaper imports by the beginning of this year, a powerful hand in the coalition regime appears to be blocking the passage of the law, Mirror Business learns.

After a long struggle by the local industrialists, an anti-dumping bill was finally drafted and was expected to be presented to the parliament in January 2017, but has been delayed to this date.

However, an enquiry into this long delay transpired that the bill had not even been placed in the order paper for the Cabinet to consider it.

According to sources, a powerful minister in the coalition government in charge of trade had wanted the cabinet secretary to keep the bill from being presented to the Cabinet as he had wanted to study the bill with the support of some experts.

This has pushed the entire process back to square one as the bill now has to go through the entire spectrum of steps before being presented to the parliament. Proper anti-dumping laws stand crucial at this juncture as Sri Lanka is currently negotiating multiple bilateral trade deals with Singapore, China, Malaysia, Bangladesh and an extension of the existing free trade agreement with India.

Attempts to enforce anti-dumping laws faced numerous hurdles for over a decade as the promises made by the legislators of both main political parties proved to be mere lip service as none dared to protect the local industries for reasons best known to them.

In an earlier instance in February 2006, a piece of legislation called Anti-dumping and Countervailing Bill was presented to parliament by the Trade, Commerce, Consumer Affairs and Marketing Development Minister at the time, specially to give effect to the agreement on implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 and the agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.

But for mysterious reasons, it never saw the light of the day.

Mirror Business in an earlier occasion divulged another powerful hand in the private sector was trying to delay the passage of the law using his political connection to the present rulers.

Anti-dumping laws are long overdue in Sri Lanka where even the basic food items are being imported.

The new US President Donald Trump has called for stronger need for fair trade as much as the free trade and this ethos are now reshaping how the nation states engage in international trade.