Bangladesh to fight Brazil's anti-dumping duty on yarn export

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

DHAKA, Feb. 5 (Chinese media) -- Bangladesh is planning to fight a 16 percent anti-dumping duty Latin American economic giant Brazil imposed on its jute yarn last year, leading English daily The Financial Express reported on Thursday.

Brazil imposed the duty, which is equivalent to 16 U.S. cents for every kg of jute yarn shipped by Bangladeshi exporters in August 2008 for a five-year period ending 2013, the newspaper said.

The move followed the accusation made by one of Brazilian producers against one Bangladeshi company Usha Jute Yarn Limited of dumping the item in its market, despite Usha made the shipment through a European trader, the report said.

A commerce ministry official told the newspaper that the extraordinary measure by Brazil could expose the sector to "troubles", although Brazil is an insignificant market for Bangladesh's jute yarn accounting for less than one percent of the export.

"Brazil has set a precedence, which some countries can use as a pretext to impose anti-dumping duty on Bangladesh's jute yarn," the official was quoted as saying.

"We are in touch with our embassies in New Delhi and Washington to collect all necessary papers so that we can make a quick move," the official said.

Jute yarn makes up some 64 percent of the jute goods exports of Bangladesh, the largest exporter of raw jute and jute products in the world.

In the 2007-08 fiscal year (July 2007-June 2008), the country's 59 jute spinners exported jute goods worth 318.74 million U.S. dollars.