Guideline on Countervailing Duty

Bangladesh Tariff Commission

March, 2008

The WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures disciplines the use of subsidies, and it regulates the actions countries can take to counter the effects of subsidies. Under the agreement, a country can use the WTO’s dispute-settlement procedure to seek the withdrawal of the subsidy or the removal of its adverse effects. Or the country can launch its own investigation and ultimately charge extra duty (“countervailing duty”) on subsidized imports that are found to be hurting domestic producers. Countervailing duties are a unilateral instrument, which may be applied by a Member after an investigation by that Member and a determination that the criteria set forth in the SCM Agreement are satisfied.

The Bangladesh Tariff Commission (BTC) has published a Guideline on Countervailing Duty in 2008 on behave of the Ministry of Commence (MoC) discussed the detailed process, steps and conditions of imposing countervailing duties mechanism under WTO framework. It has also been defined the nature of subsidies, the pre conditions of countervailing duties and process of imposing countervailing duties under Bangladesh Customs Act which compatible with the WTO’s SCM Agreement