In my July 12, 2018, column, I discussed the issue on the need to place flat glass back on the list of items under mandatory standard, after it was temporarily removed from the list by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) at the height of port congestion at the country’s two major ports several years back.
Apparently, our call for the DTI to reconsider their standard compliance requirements for flat glass, after reports of cheaper but lower-quality imported flat glass being sold in the local market reached us, coupled with our concern for consumer safety because of fatal glass-related accidents happening all over the world, may have caused alarm to some interest groups, claiming that putting back flat glass in the mandatory standard list is restrictive and is aimed at controling the market by a local glass manufacturer.
As chairman of the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI), I would like to emphasize that while our advocacy is to promote consumer safety and enhance competition, we strongly oppose cartels and monopolies. Let me state for the record, that, even before the creation of the Philippine Competition Commission, we already filed the first anti-cartel case that was given due course by the Department of Justice (DOJ), with hearings still ongoing both at the MTC and RTC of Pasig City.
These are practically the reasons that compel us to call on the government, particularly the DTI, to put back flat glass in the mandatory standard list. Putting back flat glass in the mandatory standard list will not restrict the importation of flat glass, but rather, it is to protect consumers. In fact, mandatory standards are applied to both imported and locally manufactured flat glass.
The country has only one flat glass manufacturer. Providing direct and indirect employment opportunities to our countrymen, the country’s glass industry is threatened by the entry of important flat glass. Already, there have been reported incidents of entry of substandard flat glass into the country, which endanger the safety of our countrymen and compete unfairly with locally produced flat glass.
Under the current DTI policy, imported flat glass is only subjected to voluntary standard certification. Meaning, it is up to importers to subject their flat glass importations to mandatory standard or not. It worries us to know that, even during the years when flat glass was still included in the mandatory standard list, uncertified flat glass were already being brought into the local market illegally. How much rampant would this be, now that flat glass is only under voluntary standard?
What puzzles me though is the opposition by some importers to put back flat glass in the mandatory standard, when Chinese glass manufacturers themselves placed an ad in one of the major newspapers, saying that Chinese-manufactured flat glass are of best quality and compliant to international product standards.
I am, therefore, amused, if not confused, what these importers are afraid of. Unless, they have doubts on the claim of Chinese glass manufacturers as published in a major newspaper.
I am also surprised why those opposing our call to put back flat glass in the mandatory standard came out only after Japanese-controlled Asahi Glass, the only flat glass manufacturing company in the country, was bought by a Chinese-Filipino-owned company and is now named Pioneer Flat Glass Manufacturing Inc. Is this not a classic example of Filipino crab mentality, where Filipinos themselves pull down a rising Filipino company?
What we are asking from the government is a measure to promote consumer safety and to enhance competition. So long as imported flat glass are certified under the government’s mandatory standard, we are not against the importation of flat glass. But we will be watching the local market, if only to secure the safety of consumers and to promote competition in the local glass industry.
By the way, I’m not aware of any law in the Philippines that restricts or prohibits investments in the manufacturing of flat glass in the country, nor laws that ban or restrict the entry of imported flat glass. This means that the flat-glass market in the Philippines remains contestable.
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Dr. Arranza is the chairman of the Federation of Philippine Industries and Fight Illicit Trade, a broad-based, multisectoral movement intended to protect consumers, safeguard government revenues and shield legitimate industries from the ill effects of smuggling.