To this end, the Ministry of Commerce formed recently a five-member committee comprising officials from Tariff Commission, Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), WTO Cell at the ministry and NBR.

This committee has been assigned to examine the existing anti-dumping rules and then disseminate information to the businesspeople so that they can take safeguard measures to protect their industries.

The country's ceramic industry, dry cell battery, razor blade, paints and yarn manufacturers have already sent letters to Tariff Commission and National Board of Revenue besides the Ministry of Commerce expressing their concerns at dumping of products from competing countries like China, Thailand and India.

The manufacturers said products from mainly those countries flooded local market, which, they assume, were exported at a lower price than that in their own country.

As per the WTO rule, export of any product may be termed dumping if a company sells the product at a price lower than the price it normally charges in its home market.

Sources in the commerce ministry said although a number of manufacturers expressed their concern over the issue the letters sent to the ministry and other government agencies, they never filed any formal complaints to the government to take action under anti-dumping rule. Bangladesh adopted an anti-dumping rule in 1995 following an agreement at the World Trade Organisation.

The WTO deal said a company can file complaint to its government against dumping and the government can bring it to the notice of the anti-dumping body at WTO.

"Our manufacturers lack information. They also have poor knowledge about pricing of the products in other countries and they don't have adequate capacity to analyse the price gap," a high official of the ministry of commerce said.

Local manufacturers are also unaware of the process of filing anti-dumping measures against any foreign competing company, the official added.

Meanwhile, filing of complaints at WTO is continuing and a WTO data says 16 countries have initiated a total of 82 new investigations under anti-dumping agreement during the July-December period of 2005.

Among members reporting new initiations, the highest number is China with 13 initiations followed by Argentina and India 11 each, European Communities 9, the United States 8 and Australia and South Africa 5 each.

Bangladesh never filed any complaint to the WTO under the anti-dumping agreement despite it experienced anti-dumping duty from India.