Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 2
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The draft anti-dumping legislation “On anti-dumping measures in trade” has been sent to the Georgian parliament for consideration, said Deputy Minister of Economy of Georgia Gennadi Arveladze, Trend reports citing commersant.ge.
The new law is expected to enter into force on January 1, 2020.
The purpose of anti-dumping legislation is to protect local producers from dumping prices by importers.
According to Arveladze, if a product is supposedly sold at a price lower than the cost, which damages local production, the competition agency has the right to initiate an investigation.
“At the same time, a signal to start an investigation may be a statement by representatives of the local industry, which should contain certain evidence that dumping is actually taking place,” he said.
According to him, the investigation may take up to a year, if necessary, the period may be extended to 18 months.
“In the event that local businesses incur serious losses before the investigation is completed, the law provides for the possibility of taking certain measures - in particular, special tariffs for importers will be introduced that exclude the possibility of selling goods at dumping prices,” said Arveladze.
According to him, such measures can be used only for a period of 7 months if by then the investigation is not completed.
“If the investigation conducted by the competition agency confirms the existence of dumping by importers, then new and constant tariffs will be introduced against them, but if the charges are not confirmed, then preliminary 7-month tariffs will be canceled after the investigation is completed,” the deputy minister said.
According to him, the agency itself does not have the right to make any decisions regarding tariffs for importers, and if dumping is confirmed, the antimonopoly service can only send a number of recommendations to the government, which ultimately has to take specific solutions.