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Complaints from

US trigger

probe against

PSI companies

IKRAMUL HAQ

ISLAMABAD: The two PSI companies Cotecna and SGC, have been asked to present documents, pertaining to certain cases of imports from America, where the US has complained of discrimination in valuation as compared to imports from the European Union.

The American complaints against the Swiss based pre-shipment inspection companies came up for discussion at the meeting convened by the Ministry of Commerce to sort out the issue.

The charge of discrimination is a serious one under the new free trade regime prescribed by WTO.

The meeting chaired by the Commerce Secretary, Aslam Hayat Qureshi, was also attended by representatives of the Central Board of Revenue (CBR), and, the FPCCI who has its own list of complaints against PSI companies.

Informed sources told Business Recorder that the two companies will present record of the specific cases, pointed out by USA within a week. The record will be jointly scrutinized by the Commerce Ministry and CBR to se if valuation has been made correctly. Only then the government will be in a position to respond to the American companies.

The American complaints include Caterpillar and GEC, the Federation's complaints were also discuss, on the meeting.