Why are the Packages and Lakson Groups teaming up to take on cheap Chinese imports?

For the past decade, two of Pakistan’s leading industrial conglomerates have teamed up to fight back against cheap Chinese imports. Syed Babar Ali’s Packages Group and the Lakhani Family’s Lakson Group have, since 2017, gone to great lengths to try and ensure a simple product called One-side Coated Bleached Paperboard (CBP) is kept out of Pakistani markets. 

Their reason is simple. Bulleh Shah Packaging and Century Paper and Board Mills are the only two domestic manufacturers of this product in Pakistan. CBP is  a product central to Pakistan's packaging, publishing, pharmaceutical, and educational sectors. It is primarily used for high-end retail packaging, food and beverage containers, and pharmaceuticals where both flawless print quality and product hygiene are strictly required.

For much of this period they have been successful. The National Tariff Commission (NTC) has maintained duties on imported CBP to allow domestic manufacturers to thrive. But in recent years importers have found workarounds and legal relief to once again bring in cheaper Chinese CBP into Pakistan. The only question is, can two of Pakistan's most influential business groups maintain the status quo they have been enjoying for many years? 

What is happening? 

This is a story of overlapping petitions, bans, reviews, circumventions, and clamping down over these circumventions.

The short of the story is this. In 2015, Century Paper and Board Mills (CPBM) lodged a complaint with the National Tariff Commission (NTC), alleging that Chinese exporters were dumping cheap one-side bleached paperboard in Pakistan, eroding the potential and margins of the local industry.