Cement firms may lose anti-dumping case vs Taiwan firm

Cement manufacturers may lose their anti-dumping case against Taiwan Cement Corp. due to their association’s reported delay in submitting additional documents to the Bureau of Import Services, the government agency which investigates and rules on anti-dumping cases.

The Philippine Cement Manufacturers Corp. (Philcemcor), as far back as March 2, 2000, had filed an anti-dumping case against Taiwan Cement Corp. which is owned by businessman Jeffrey Kho.

Philcemcor, an organization of 19 local cement manufacturers, however, decided last September 2000 to amend its anti-dumping case against Taiwan Cement. It wanted to include data to show that imports from Taiwan increased by 1,700 percent to 472,400 metric tons in the first half of 2000 from only 27,800 metric tons in the first half of 1999.

The case against Taiwan Cement is the first test case under the Anti-Dumping Law passed in 1999.

Philcemcor claimed that its members lost about P15 billion in potential revenues due to the unfair competition presented by the dumped cement. It estimates that the P15 billion would be on top of the P5.7 billion the cement companies lost in 1999 which was 63 percent higher than the P3.5-billion losses posted in 1998.

However, the BIS is reportedly getting impatient with Philcemcor’s delay in the submission of additional data and documents to support its anti-dumping case against Taiwan Cement.

BIS Director Alexander Arcilla has given Philcemcor until Friday, Jan. 6, to submit its anti-dumping petition against Taiwan Cement, warning that "if they fail to submit the necessary documents, then we have no petition to discuss."

Arcilla pointed out that he had already given Philcemcor on earlier 90-day extension which has since lapsed.

He said the BIS should have rendered a decision on the case last Sept. 22, 2000.

If Philcemcor fails to beat the deadline to submit the additional data and documents, the BIS will make a decision based on the data and documents covering imports for 1999 only.