DILI, 13 december 2023 (TATOLI) – Minister of Trade and Industry, Filipus Nino Pereira, explained that last week, on Wednesday, December 6, Wednesday the government, through the council minister’s extraordinary meeting, approved a decree law of commercial defense measures to protect domestic trade activity and prevent Timor-Leste from dumping industrial activity.
“The council minister has approved commercial defense measures to regulate commercial activity on goods and services products in the domestic market,’’ Minister of Trade and Industry, Filipus Nino Pereira, explained to the Tatoli media in the National Parliament on tuesday.
He added Trade defense measures are mechanisms adopted by the state and companies to safeguard the national industry against unfair trade practices, such as dumping and subsidies, understood as strategies to dominate markets by companies from competing countries that undermine fair competition. In addition to minimizing the effects of these practices, these measures aim to provide temporary protection for the national industry in the face of import surges. To achieve this goal, it is imperative to implement corrective measures that allow for the temporary increase of customs duties or the application of quantitative restrictions, such as import quotas, to protect national industries from harmful competition from imports.
This decree of laws protects trade activity and also avoids dumping commercial activity in Timor-Leste. Other countries still adopted dumping commercial activity for producing products overseas and selling them at very cheap prices.
Thus, they lost products overseas at very expensive prices, but when they imported them to Timor-Leste, they decided to sell them at a very cheap price, and this commercial activity will not only promote our local products at the domestic price but also in the international market.
“We consider that this dumping commercial activity will not allow us to provide commercial activity in the domestic markets,’’ he stressed.
Mr. Pereira said Timor-Leste should have an antidumping policy to protect domestic industry and commercial activity.
It helps Timor-Leste to provide quotas to reduce import products to be commercialized in the domestic market of Timor-Leste.
The decree laws of commercial defense measures provide an opportunity for the domestic industry to develop local produce and also to protect the domestic industrial trade.
It is known that Draft Decree-Law aimed to establish trade defense measures in Timor-Leste, given that the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union and the Pacific States, and integration into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) require formal commitments on market access for goods and services, intending to reduce or even exempt customs duties, carrying out various reforms, and approving trade restrictions as part of a process of trade liberalization.
Journalist: José Belarmino de Sá
Editor: Rafael Ximenes de A. Belo
