A Vietnamese cement exporter is asking the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to revisit its computation of the provisional anti-dumping duty on cement products given its impact on import costs.
During a preliminary conference held by the Tariff Commission (TC) on Monday, Joel Butuyan of Omanco Vietnam said the “imposition of dumping duties on our client would cause irreparable injury.”
“The dumping duty or the determination of the dumping duty applicable to Omanco, which participated in the DTI proceedings, is actually even higher, so much higher than the companies that did not participate at all,” he said.
The DTI recently imposed anti-dumping duties on certain cement imports from Vietnam to protect the local industry. Its initial investigations revealed that 9 out of 16 Vietnamese exporters of Type 1 cement and 4 out of 12 exporters of Type 1P cement have been dumping in the country.
Dumping refers to exporting of product at a much lower price for the foreign importing country compared to the cost in the exporters’ local market.
For Type 1 cement, the provisional anti-dumping duty will range from $1.02/metric ton (MT) to $10.53/MT, which is equivalent to 2.69 percent to 31.87 percent of the export price. The computed duties for Type 1P cement, meanwhile, are from $1.16/MT to $12.79/MT or 3.80 percent to 29.20 percent of the export price.
Butuyan said the company raised its concerns about the duty with the DTI previously but it did not receive a favorable response.
As such, he asked the TC if “it would allow the filing of an immediate motion for the amendment or the revision of the provisional determination made by the DTI.”
TC Commissioner Ernesto Albano, however, said the cement firm’s issue needs to be resolved at the level of the DTI as no motion for consideration shall be directly filed before the TC against a department order issued by the Secretary.
“You can file for reimbursement of duties,” he added.
On Monday, the TC held a preliminary conference regarding the anti-dumping case against Vietnam cement imports. The commission discussed the timelines, nature of investigation, appearance of counsel and parties, number of witnesses, notification, accessibility of documents and public and confidentiality of documents, among others.
TC scheduled the data verification and submission of initial position papers by the parties for next month.
This is to be followed by submission of the following documents in February: affidavits of witnesses, list of proposed additional issues for the public hearing. In the same month, TC will issue its staff report, which is open for comments.
Public hearings will be conducted in March. The commission seeks to submit its final report to the DTI by April.
The TC probe came after the DTI’s announcement earlier this month regarding the imposition of provisional anti-dumping duty in the form of cash bond on said Vietnam cement imports. It will be in place for four months beginning the issuance of the relevant memorandum order.
The provisional duties are estimated to hike the import cost of a 40-kilogram bag of cement by P2.01 to P25.08. But DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez assured it will not increase the retail price of the cement due to its minimal impact on landed cost.