The Philippines has issued a decision not to apply safeguard duty on high-density HDPE plastic resin originating from Vietnam

On September 30, 2022, the Secretary of the Department of Industry and Trade of the Philippines issued a decision not to apply a safeguard duty on HDPE high-density plastic resin originating from Vietnam in the case of the investigation into the application of comprehensive global safeguard measures with High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) of AHTN code (Asean Harmonised Tariff Nomenclature) 3901.20.00.

On April 21, 2022, the Philippine Customs Commission concluded the investigation of applying safeguard measures against Linear Low Density Polyethylene (LLDPE) with HS code 3901.10.12; 3901.10.92; 3901.40.00; 3901.90.90.

After a thorough investigation, the Philippines has come to the conclusion that there is no increase in imports of the goods under investigation into the Philippines in the case of the investigation of applying a safeguard measure against low-density plastics. Thereby, the Philippines decided not to apply safeguard measures against LLDPE.

Regarding the investigation of the application of safeguard duty on High-density polyethylene HDPE originating from Vietnam, on June 27, 2022, the Philippine Customs Commission issued the final conclusion in the investigation case of the application of global safeguard measures against high-density polyethylene imported from Vietnam.

It is known that the Philippine Tariff Commission has recommended to the Philippine Department of Industry and Trade to apply a safeguard duty rate of 2% within 3 years for this product in the countries subject to investigation to prevent the risk of imported HDPE pellets causing serious damage to the domestic industry.

Accordingly, on June 28, 2022, the Philippine Department of Industry and Trade received an investigation report on imported HDPE products in the period from 2015-2019, updating more information and data until September 2020 and finally, issued a decision on the imposition of safeguard duty on HDPE pellets within three years from the date the Philippine Customs Authority ordered the collection.

The rates of safeguard duty over the years are as follows: 1,338 Php/MT for the first year; 1,271 Php/MT for the second year; and 1,208 Php/MT for the final year. However, the Philippine Department of Industry and Trade may conduct a review to adjust the duty rate or the list of excluded countries if imports from these countries increase.

According to the report, Vietnam is not subject to safeguard duty because this country is in the group of developing countries that are excluded from the global safeguard duty because the import volume is negligible, less than 3% for this item to the Philippines, along with about 150 other countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, America, and the Pacific Ocean.

The notice of the Philippines’ safeguard duty decision can be downloaded here.

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