DTI eyes safeguard duty on steel imports

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) may impose preliminary safeguard duty on galvanized steel iron and pre-painted sheets and coil imports after if completes its initial investigation of a petition filed by Puyat Steel Corp.

Trade undersecretary Adrian Cristobal Jr. told reporters in a chance interview the DTI may impose a preliminary safeguard measure after the initial investigation is conducted and before the Tariff Commission looks into the matter.

He said the decision to impose a preliminary safeguard measure would depend on the documents to be submitted by stakeholders for the preliminary investigation.

“We are still waiting for their comments. Based on that, we can impose preliminary safeguard,” he said.

He said that after the notice of preliminary investigation is given, parties are given five days to submit their comments on the issue.

If parties are unable to give their position within five days, they may seek an extension of between 15 to 30 days.

The Philippine government initiated the investigation on galvanized iron and pre-painted sheets and coils on Sept. 27.

The preliminary investigation is being conducted following a petition filed by the domestic industry represented by Puyat Steel.

In its petition, Puyat Steel claimed that increased imports have caused serious injury to the domestic industry, citing declining market share, production sales, capacity utilization, productivity, profitability, price suppression and undercutting.

Cristobal said that if the preliminary investigation shows that increased imports is threatening the local industry, the DTI may forward the case to the Tariff Commission which would then conduct its formal investigation on the petition.

Safeguard measures refer to higher duties which a country imposes on imported goods in order to provide relief to domestic industries.

These measures are applied when it is found that there is increased imports of the commodity and when the local industry is threatened by the increase in purchases of such product from other countries.