Countervailing Duties Ordinance, 2001 (Repealed by Act XIII of 2015)

The Countervailing Duties Ordinance, 2001 set out Pakistan's framework for imposing "countervailing duties" - additional import duties meant to offset unfair government subsidies received by foreign exporters. Its preamble ties it directly to Pakistan's obligations under the WTO's General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 1994 and the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. This ordinance has since been repealed and replaced by Act XIII of 2015, so it now mainly serves as historical background to the current law.

Section 2 defines the key institutions involved: the "Commission" is the National Tariff Commission (established under a separate 1990 Act), which investigates and decides countervailing duty cases, and the "Appellate Tribunal" is the same tribunal used for anti-dumping cases under the Anti-Dumping Ordinance, 2000, which hears appeals from the Commission's decisions (Section 32).

Section 4 explains when a "subsidy" is considered to exist - broadly, whenever a government makes a financial contribution (such as direct grants, loans, foregone tax revenue, discounted goods or services, or funding channelled through a private body) that confers a benefit on the recipient. Sections 5-6 then distinguish "countervailable" subsidies, which can trigger duties - particularly subsidies tied to export performance or to using domestic over imported goods - from "non-countervailable" subsidies, such as research funding that covers no more than a defined share of research costs.

The Ordinance sets out the investigation and enforcement process in detail: how an investigation is initiated on application (Section 11), the general principles governing how investigations are conducted (Section 12), provisional duties that can be imposed while an investigation is ongoing (Section 13), exporter undertakings offered as an alternative to duties (Section 14), the imposition of definitive countervailing duties once an investigation concludes (Section 16), and periodic "expiry reviews" and "interim reviews" (Sections 19-20) to check whether duties already imposed are still justified.

A Fifth Schedule lists developing and least-developed WTO member countries - including Pakistan itself - that are entitled to more lenient treatment under certain subsidy provisions, underlining that this law is built around Pakistan's international trade commitments rather than being purely a domestic policy tool.

Because this Ordinance is explicitly noted as repealed by Act XIII of 2015, anyone dealing with a current countervailing duty question should consult that 2015 Act rather than rely on this superseded text.