MCI has announced that its intensive efforts during the preventive investigation conducted by the Ministry of Economy and Trade of the Republic of Lebanon resulted in ending the investigation without imposing charges against the Kingdom's exports of raw plastic granules.
The Lebanese Investigation authority had begun the preventive investigation on 19/09/2013 AD against its imports of raw plastic granules from all countries of the world, including the Kingdom, based on a complaint from the domestic industry claiming that it had been affected by the increased imports from the Arab countries, Turkey and European countries. MCI has found out that Saudi Arabia has a substantial interest in the said investigation, being the largest exporter of the above mentioned product under investigation.
The Ministry has studied the investigation file and the complaint of Lebanese local industry, where it has been found out from studying the complaint and analyzing the data contained therein, that the start of the investigation does not comply with the requirements of the Protection Law of Lebanese National Products, and thus the technical and legal defenses were provided that led to the ending of investigation for lack of the basic conditions set by the law for the continuation of the investigation and charging preventive fees.
The Ministry has also carried the necessary cooperation and continuous coordination with the Saudi companies exporting such product under the investigation, and provided them with information and important documents about the investigation, as well as urging them regarding the importance of full cooperation with the Lebanese Investigation Authority in order to avoid imposing fees against the Kingdom's exports.
As a result of the integrity and impartiality of the Lebanese Investigation Authority, the final results of the investigation come compatible with the Ministry's request to terminate the investigation without charging preventive fees due to the lack of sufficient evidences of the serious harm caused by the increase of imports and the absence of a causal relationship between them.