India, Saudi Arabia Talks on PP Anti-Dumping Tax Next Month.

Dubai: Saudi Arabia and India will resume talks next month on the prospects of lifting an anti-dumping tax imposed on the kingdom's polypropylene exports, a news report has said, quoting informed sources.
     
Saudi Arabia's Commerce and Industry Minister, Abdullah Zainal Alireza, will lead the Saudi delegation for new talks in New Delhi, the Indian trade mission in Geneva said, adding that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will lead the Indian team.
     
According to the Arab News report, analysts have assigned utmost importance to the next round of talks, as previous bilateral negotiations have failed to reach an agreement.
     
New Delhi imposed an anti-dumping tax on Saudi PP exports in July, 2009.
     
India imports 25,000 tonnes of polypropylene from Saudi Arabia annually.
     
Before imposing the anti-dumping tax of 1.5 percent per tonne, or USD 20-22, Saudi polypropylene was the lowest priced product in the market, the report said.
     
Saudi Export Development Centre (SEDC) Executive Council Chairman Abdul Rahman Al-Zamil described the 22 percent tax as "unreasonable" and urged New Delhi to reconsider the decision in the light of the strategic trade relations between the two countries.
     
According to Al-Zamil, India imposed anti-dumping taxes on Saudi polypropylene exports, saying it had cheaper feedstock.
     
"The availability of cheap feedstock in the kingdom is quite natural as a result of abundant local gas supply and the location of petrochemical plants closer to gas pipelines," he said.

Source : zeenews.india.com