4.—(1) A written petition requesting that a countervailing duty investigation be initiated with regard to goods imported, or likely to be imported, into Singapore may be submitted to the Minister by any person on behalf of the domestic industry producing like goods.
(2) A petition shall be in such form as may be determined by the Minister and shall include evidence of each of the elements specified in section 3(1) and all other evidence that may be prescribed.
(3) The Minister shall, within the period prescribed, review the petition and other available information and determine whether —
(a)
sufficient evidence to warrant the initiation of an investigation into whether the elements necessary for the imposition of a countervailing duty as provided under section 3(1) exists; and
(b)
such an investigation is in the public interest.
(4) Where the Minister determines that sufficient evidence does not exist to warrant the initiation of a countervailing duty investigation or that such an investigation is not in the public interest, the Minister shall as soon as practicable notify the petitioner of his determination not to initiate an investigation.
(5) Where the Minister determines that sufficient evidence exists to warrant the initiation of a countervailing duty investigation and that such an investigation is in the public interest, the Minister shall notify the appropriate interested parties and publish a notice of initiation of investigation.
(6) The Minister may, in special circumstances, initiate a countervailing duty investigation on his own accord where he has sufficient evidence of each of the elements specified in section 3(1).
(7) Where the Minister decides to initiate an investigation under subsection (6), he shall notify the appropriate interested parties and publish a notice of initiation of investigation.
(8) Notwithstanding any provision in this section, the Minister shall not initiate an investigation unless he has determined on the basis of an examination of the degree of support for, or opposition to, any written petition submitted under subsection (1) —
(a)
that the written petition is supported by domestic producers of like goods whose collective output constitutes more than 50% of the total production of the like goods produced by that portion of the domestic industry expressing either support for or opposition to the written petition; and
(b)
that the domestic producers of like goods expressly supporting the written petition account for not less than 25% of the total production of the like goods produced by the domestic industry.
(9) For the purposes of subsection (8), in the case of fragmented industries involving an exceptionally large number of producers, the Minister may determine the support and opposition by using statistically valid sampling techniques.