Tariff body to decide on safeguard measures

The chairman of the Senate committee on trade and industry is urging the Tariff Commission to take the national interest at heart when it rules next week on local manufacturers’ application for safeguard measures against excessive imports.

Pending at the Tariff Commission is the cement industry’s petition for safeguard measures following the unabated dumping of imported cement into the country. Specifically, local cement manufacturers are seeking higher tariffs on cement imports, which have cornered one-fourth of the Philippine market in four short years.

Sen. Ralph Recto said that, as it is, the national interest is already compromised since Philippine exports are facing protectionist barriers abroad while imports are getting red-carpet treatment here.

Tariff Commission Chairman Edgardo Abon had earlier said that the commission would announce the country’s first-ever safeguard-related decision by March 21, a ruling that would be the legal benchmark for all industries threatened by import surges and which could mean life or death for the thousands of Filipino workers they employ.

"This is not fair," Recto said, referring to the low tariff on meat, tiles, clothing and cement imports. "We kept our tariff rates so low that we actually made ourselves a natural magnet for the region’s excess capacity."

"Meanwhile, others are actually protecting their industries although they talk free trade. The European Union and Australia are protecting their own businesses and if the United States can protect its steel industry against too much imports, why can’t we do the same for our strategic industries like cement?" he added.

US President George W. Bush recently imposed temporary tariffs of as much as 30 percent on most imported steel products "to help steel workers, communities that depend on steel, and the steel industry adjust without harming our economy."

In contrast to the low tariffs on cement imports, Philippine tuna products are facing higher tariffs in the EU while locally-produced bananas face a possible ban in Australia, Recto pointed out. Specifically, Philippine tuna exports to the EU are levied a 24-percent tariff, although tuna exports from former European colonies in Africa and the Caribbean pay zero. Australian farmers, on the other hand, are putting up a lobby fund to block the entry of Philippine bananas there.

Recto said: "We should be flexible in our trade policies as the US and the EU have been. If imports threaten injury to our industries, we can’t just sit tight and say it is free trade. It is not free trade that is at issue here but our very survival, our national interest."

National interest was also the issue when Bush announced safeguards against steel imports, Recto said.

"We lost our steel industry to imports two years ago. We cannot and must not allow efficient local industries to similarly collapse at the alter of free trade. It is not a religion that requires lives to be sacrificed and whole industries to perish," he added.

Recto said that the Philippines would not be violating its trade commitments with the World Trade Organization should it decide to impose safeguards for these ailing industries. "On the contrary, I believe there are provisions under the WTO allowing for the temporary safeguards to help an industry get back on its feet."