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THE ANTI-DUMPING DUTIES ACT, 2015 THE ANTI-DUMPING DUTIES ACT, 2015 ACT No. XIV OF 2015 [8th September, 2015] An Act to reform and repeal the Anti-Dumping Duties Ordinance, 2000 WHEREAS it is expedient to give effect in Pakistan to the provisions of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 1994, and to the Agreement on Implementation thereof and to amend and consolidate the law relating to imposition of anti-dumping duties to offset such dumping, to provide a framework for investigation and determination of dumping and injury in respect of goods imported into Pakistan and for matters ancillary thereto or connected therewith; AND WHEREAS the imposition of anti-dumping duties to offset injurious dumping is in the public interest; AND WHEREAS it is expedient to provide for certain reforms in the Anti-Dumping Duties Ordinance, 2000 (LXV of 2000), by repealing the said Ordinance and re-enacting the law for the purposes hereinafter appearing; It is hereby enacted as follows: PART VIII CONDUCT OF INVESTIGATIONS 31. Confidentiality. (1) Subject to sub-section (2), the Commission shall, during and after an investigation, keep confidential any information submitted to it and such information shall not be disclosed without specific permission of the party submitting it. (2) Any information which is (a) by nature confidential, because its disclosure shall be of significant competitive advantage to a competitor, or because its disclosure would have a significantly adverse effect upon a person supplying the information, or upon a person from whom the information was acquired; (b) determined by the Commission to be of a confidential nature for any other reason; or (c) provided as confidential by parties to an investigation, shall, on good cause shown, be kept confidential by the Commission. (3) The following types of information shall be deemed to be by nature confidential, unless the Commission determines that disclosure in a particular case would neither be of significant competitive advantage to a competitor nor have a significantly adverse effect upon a person supplying the information or upon a person ID from whom such information was acquired, namely: (a) business or trade secrets concerning the nature of a product, production processes, operations, production equipment, or machinery; (b) information concerning financial condition of a company which is not publicly available; and (c) information concerning costs, identification of customers, sales, inventories, shipments, or amount or source of any income, profit, loss or expenditure related to manufacture and sale of a product. (4) Any party seeking any information to be kept confidential shall request for the same at the time the information is submitted, along with the reasons warranting confidentiality. The Commission shall consider such request expeditiously and inform the party submitting the information if it determines that the request for keeping the information confidential is not warranted. (5) Any party submitting any information with the request to keep it confidential shall furnish non-confidential summary of all such information. Such summary may take the form of ranges or indexation of figures provided in the confidential version or marked deletions in text or in such other form as the Commission may require: Provided that such non-confidential summary shall permit a reasonable understanding of the substance of the information submitted in confidence: Provided further that any deletion in text shall, unless otherwise allowed by the Commission, only relate to names of the buyer or supplier. (6) In exceptional circumstances, any party submitting confidential information may indicate that such information is not susceptible of summary, in which case a statement of the reasons why summarisation is not possible shall be provided. If the Commission concludes that the non-confidential summary provided fails to satisfy the requirements of sub-section (5), it may determine that the request for keeping the information confidential is not warranted. (7) If the Commission finds that a request for keeping the information confidential is not warranted, and if the supplier of such information is unwilling to make it public or to authorise the disclosure in generalised or summary form, the Commission shall disregard such information and return the same to the party submitting it. (8) Subject to sub-section (9), notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or in any other law for the time being in force, any confidential information received or obtained, directly or indirectly, by the Commission pursuant to or in connection with an investigation shall not be subject to disclosure by the Commission to any Ministry, Division, department, agency or instrumentality of the Federal Government or a Provincial Government without the prior permission of the party submitting such confidential information. (9) The provisions of sub-section (8) shall not preclude the supply of any information called for by the Appellate Tribunal pursuant to section 72: Provided that the obligation to protect confidential information as provided for in this Chapter shall, mutatis mutandis, extend to the Appellate Tribunal.