KUALA LUMPUR – The government has terminated the safeguard investigation on imports of ceramic floor and wall tiles that was initiated after a petition filed by the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers-Malaysian Ceramic Industry Group.
They had claimed that the increase in imports of ceramic floor and wall tile products in absolute terms, and relative to domestic production from 2017 to 2019, had caused serious injury to the domestic industry.
However, the International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) said in a statement today that after completing investigations pursuant to subsection 20(2) of the Safeguards Act 2006 and regulation 10 of the Safeguards Regulation 2007, the government had “made a negative preliminary determination”.
It said Putrajaya made the decision after finding that there had been no increase in imports of the product under investigation (PUI) in absolute terms.
“The government was also not able to ascertain the import volume of the PUI in relative terms to the domestic production of the like products during the period of investigation,” it said.
Moreover, Miti said, the government was unable to ascertain the existence of a causal link between the increase in imports of the PUI and the serious injury to the domestic industry as alleged. – Bernama, January 11, 2021
