THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) found enough grounds to conduct an anti-dumping investigation on cement imports from Vietnam after three local cement manufacturers raised some red flags.
In a notice dated April 20, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez said that Cemex Philippines Corp., Holcim Philippines Inc. and Republic Cement Builders and Building Materials Inc. sent their documented applications for said probe.
“The applications allege that cement products are being imported from Vietnam at dumped prices, which cause material injury to the local industry,” he said.
After reviewing the application, Lopez said that the DTI “has determined the existence of sufficient evidence to justify the initiation of an investigation.”
The products to be probed are cement classified under the AHTN (Asean harmonized tariff nomenclature) codes 2523.2990 and 2523.9000.
The DTI noted that the period of investigation (POI) for dumping is from July 2019 to June 2020. The POI of injury is from 2017 to June 2020.
“Interested parties are invited to submit their comments, evidence and information or reply to the questionnaire to dispute the allegations contained in the application,” the DTI said.
The Anti-Dumping Act of 1999, or Republic Act 8752, is in place to protect the local industry from being materially injured by the dumping of articles imported into the country.
“An exporting company is said to be ‘dumping’ when exporters sell their product to an importer in the Philippines at a price lower than its normal value and is causing material injury to a domestic industry producing like product,” DTI said in its web site.
The trade department said that the Philippines, being a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), adheres to the rights and obligations identified in the WTO agreement on anti-dumping practices.
The said agreement seeks to make sure that anti-dumping practices will not result in “unjustifiable impediment to international trade,” the DTI said.
In 2019, the DTI imposed a three-year safeguard measure on cement based on the findings of the Tariff Commission that imports on said products are seen to inflict serious injury to the domestic industry.
The amount of the safeguard placed for the first year is P250 per metric ton (MT), or P10 per 40-kilogram bag; for the second year P225 per MT, or P9 per bag; and for the third year P200 per MT, or P8 per bag.
Earlier, the DTI said that the market share of imported cement rose to 15 percent in 2017 from just 0.02 percent in 2013, according to preliminary investigation. This prompted the local industry to bring down their prices by nearly 10 percent, translating to 12-percent cut in 2017 sales.