Pakistan urges EU to clean up bed linen act

Date: 09/01/03

By Peter Chapman

AN EU probe into cheap Pakistani bed linen imports could damage its trade relations with Pakistan, Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan will warn European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy today (9 January).

The missive follows Lamy's decision to open an investigation into alleged dumping following a complaint from EU producers - just nine months after a case was dropped for lack of evidence.

Diplomats say Akhtar Khan believes the latest probe is unjustified by any new evidence and goes against the spirit of an accord signed at the World Trade Organization ministerial in Doha a year ago.

Ministers there agreed that fresh anti-dumping probes into the same industry should be avoided.

"We just hope the Commission will see reason," said one Pakistani source ahead of the Lamy face-off, scheduled before the Commission decided to check out the fresh complaint from Brussels-based EU cotton organisation Eurocotton.

The stakes are high if the Commission decides that Pakistani producers are guilty of dumping the bed linen.

The sector is one of the developing country's biggest export industries - employing around 40,000 people, with annual sales worth €500 million.

An EU probe into cheap Pakistani bed linen imports could damage its trade relations with Pakistan, Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan will warn Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy on 9 January 2003.