MINISTER: THE EXTRA DUTIES ON GOODS IS A TEMPORARY MEASURE

SANA'A, April 07 (Saba) – Minister of Industry and Trade Yahya al-Mutawakil said on Wednesday that the measure taken by the government to impose protective and temporary duties on some goods is temporary.

He noted that these duties do not conflict with the constitution and relevant laws in force and the impact of those duties would be assessed and abolished once the goal of these duties reached.

In the government's letter presented to the Parliament on Wednesday on its measures to alleviate the pressure on the trade balance and the balance of payments, al-Mutawakil referred the causes of rapid deterioration of the Rial exchange rate against the foreign currencies recently to the disorder of internal and external balances which resulted in a confusion case in the national economy.

This necessitated the need to deal with that phenomenon and identify the economic reasons and take the a package of measures and urgent actions ,especially through reducing the public expenditure and rationalizing the growing import, which effects the balance of payments the availability of foreign exchange, al-Mutawakil added.

He also noted the need to protect the national economy from all harmful practices and from the unfair competition via studying all available means and mechanisms, taking into account the applicable laws.

On the other hand, al-Mutawakil pointed to the bases of the economic and trade policy and the trends for integration into the regional and international coalitions, including the ongoing negotiations for accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the program that is agreed upon with the international Monetary Fund (IMF).

The government approved on March 28 to prevent the import of any commodity other than the country of origin and the imposition of additional fees on 71 non-essential imported goods, including the entertainment goods, by rates ranging between 5 – 15 percent.

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