Philippines does not extend safeguard measures against cement imported from Vietnam

On October 5, 2022, the Philippine Tariff Commission issued its final conclusion on the case of extending the application of the global safeguard measure for Category 1 and Category 1P cement with AHTN code 2523.29.90 and 2523.90.00 respectively. According to the conclusion, the Philippines will not extend the safeguard measure against cement imported from Vietnam along with some other countries because the investigation results show that the import of cement from Vietnam does not cause serious damage or threaten to cause serious injury to the Philippine cement industry.

On April 20, 2021, the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) initiated an anti-dumping investigation against cement products originating from Vietnam based on a request from domestic cement manufacturers which are Cemex Philippines Corp., Holcim Philippines Inc., and Republic Cement Builders and Building Materials Inc.

The investigation period (POI) for the dumping of cement products is from July 2019 to June 2020, while the investigation period for damages affecting the domestic industry is from 2017 to June 2020.

For the period from July to December 2019, the margin of dumping is said to be between $1.75/ton and $5.36/ton, or 3.49% to 10.66%. For the January-June 2020 period, dumping margins are measured to range from $1.66/ton to $6.54/ton or 3.31% to 14.46%.

On March 11, 2022, the Philippine Tariff Commission announced the next implementation plan for the case of considering the extension of safeguard measures against Category 1 and Category 1P cement products imported from a number of countries including Vietnam. A public hearing was held in April of the same year.

The Philippines does not extend safeguard measures against cement imported from Vietnam

Based on the final conclusion on the extension of the global safeguard measure for Category 1 and Category 1P cement issued by the Philippine Tariff Commission on October 5, 2022, the Secretary of the Department of Industry and Trade of the Philippines decided not to renew the safeguard measure based on two main points:

• The import of cement from Vietnam does not cause serious damage to the cement industry of the Philippines;
• The import of cement from Vietnam does not threaten to cause serious damage to the Philippine cement industry;

Thereby, the safeguard duty on cement imported into the Philippines from Vietnam expires on October 22, 2022.

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