THE European Union (EU) has demanded that the Philippines end its safeguard investigation on float glass imports, saying it is not the appropriate measure that will resolve the surge in the import of the commodity.
In an e-mail to the BusinessMirror, a Geneva trade official said the EU asked the Philippines to stop its safeguard investigation on float glass imports during a meeting at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
During the meeting of the WTO Committee on Safeguards on Monday, the economic bloc argued the country should make use of another recourse in addressing the jump in its float glass imports in recent years.
“The EU said safeguards are supposed to provide temporary relief to an industry and are not meant to be permanent. If, after 10 years, an industry has not adjusted, maybe another course should be taken. There was no significant injury to the domestic industry as required under Article 4.1 of the Safeguards Agreement,” the Geneva trade official said.
Under Article 4.1 of the Agreement on Safeguards, “serious injury” should mean a significant overall impairment in the position of a local industry. Threat to serious injury should mean serious injury that is clearly imminent, and the determination of which must be based on facts and not on allegations, conjecture or remote possibility.
“One certain country is responsible for 85 percent of the import of float glass into the Philippines, and accounts for virtually the entire rise in imports since 2013. All other exporters combined account for less than 5 percent. A more appropriate instrument should have been used, like antidumping and countervailing instruments,” the Geneva trade official said.
“The EU considers a safeguard is not appropriate in this case; [thus], Philippines should terminate its investigation without delay,” he added. The EU is most likely taking a swipe at China, which accounted for the majority of the Philippines’s clear float glass imports, particularly in 2016 when it hit a 96.66- percent market share.
In February, one month after the imposition of a safeguard duty on cement, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez issued a notice of initiation for a preliminary investigation on whether to apply safeguard measure on clear and tinted float glass. He claimed his agency found the existence of a prima facie case in the protest that increased imports over the past years seriously impaired the local industry of float glass.
Citing Customs data, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said in a report the import volume of clear float glass jumped between 2013 and 2016, and only declined in 2017 due to the antidumping measure enforced on Chinese clear float glass.
Imports of clear float glass surged 646 percent in 2014 to 32,351 metric tons (MT), from 4,337 MT in 2013, and accelerated 52 percent in 2015 to 49,289 MT. It further expanded in 2016, this time by 19 percent, to 58,787 MT, before falling in 2017 by 29 percent to 42,029 MT.
“It was observed that during the POI [period of investigation], imports of clear float and clear reflective glass showed an upward trend which is recent, sharp, sudden and significant,” the report read.
The volume of imported tinted float glass also leaped triple digits in 2014 and 2015, the report added. Customs data showed imports of tinted float glass swelled 274 percent in 2014 to 22,431 MT, from 6,005 MT in 2013; and ballooned 127 percent in 2015 to 50,974 MT.
However, imports slid 15 percent in 2016 to 43,255 MT, and dipped 2 percent in 2017 to 42,312 MT.
“In 2016 it declined 7,719 MT, or 15 percent, and slightly declined by 2 percent in 2017. In 2017 an antidumping duty was imposed on bronze float glass from PROC [People’s Republic of China],” the report read.
The petition to apply safeguard measure was filed by Pioneer Float Glass Manufacturing Inc., the lone float glass maker in the Philippines, on the claim that it got seriously injured by the heightened import volume of float glass from 2013 to 2017.