Safeguard measures on imported vehicles to be decided this month

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) expects to come up with a decision on the preliminary investigation on safeguard measure on vehicles within the month.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez told reporters the preliminary investigation is still ongoing and a decision may be issued within two to three weeks.

“We already wrote a letter (to stakeholders) two weeks ago so we expect the data should already be in,” he said.

The DTI is conducting a preliminary probe to determine if safeguard measure or duty should be imposed on vehicles following a petition filed by workers’ group Philippine Metalworkers’ Alliance (PMA) amid rising imports.

Registered with the Department of Labor and Employment, PMA is a national union of automotive, iron and steel, electronics and electrical sectors including affiliates in key automotive industry players.

The group filed the petition in August last year as increased imports reduces opportunities to locally manufacture vehicles.

Under Republic Act 8800 or the Safeguard Measures Act, the country may impose safeguard measure or higher duties on imports to provide relief to domestic players threatened and hurt by increased imports.

In another development, Lopez said the government would continue to push its agenda with the World Trade Organization (WTO) to exercise its right to retaliate against Thailand by imposing tariff on Thai vehicle exports for its non-compliance to a cigarette tax case which the Philippines won.

This, after the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) suspended consideration of the matter during its meeting last March 5.

WTO said the DSB would continue to consult with Thailand and the Philippines on the matter. 

The Philippines’ intention to retaliate against Thailand was supposed to be discussed during the DSB’s Feb.28, meeting, but this was blocked by Thailand as it cited its pending appeal against the WTO ruling.