DTI reinstates mandatory certification for plywood

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has reinstated the mandatory certification for plywood to ensure the good quality and safety of these products sold to consumers.

In a statement, the DTI said the Bureau of Product Standards (BPS) would conduct the audit or inspection, sampling and testing of the quality of locally manufactured or imported plywood as it issued Department Administrative Order (DAO) 20-06 which prescribes the new technical regulation concerning the mandatory product certification of plywood effective Oct. 30.

In 2015, plywood imports were removed from the list of those requiring certification as the DTI limited it only to products considered as life threatening.

Under the new DAO, only those from manufacturing plants with valid Philippine Standard (PS) quality certification mark licenses would be allowed for distribution and sale in the country.

The PS quality mark licensing scheme is available to both local and foreign manufacturers selling or distributing plywood in the country.

A PS license valid for three years would be issued upon satisfactory result of the factory audit and third-party independent testing.

To ensure compliance of the certified products, the DTI will conduct monitoring and market surveillance activities.

Product testing will also be conducted by a BPS-recognized testing laboratory to check dimensions and tolerances, classification by surface appearance, mechanical characteristics like tension, shear, compression, and physical properties like moisture, content and density.

Minimum required markings, including registered brand name, trademark, business name, country of origin, type of plywood, serial number and PS mark with license number of the imported or locally manufactured plywood products, should be visible and legible at all times.

Should products fail to conform to the requirements, the DTI will issue a show-cause order and the company will have to provide an explanation.

A manufacturer or importer will be ordered to stop selling and to conduct a recall of its products when it fails to provide an acceptable reason.

The DTI may also suspend, cancel or revoke the PS license, as well as blacklist or sanction any manufacturer, importer or foreign testing facility for violations of the DAO.

“Regulating plywood is part of DTI-BPS’ mandate to establish standards that will ensure the production and distribution of quality products for the safety of the consumers,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said.

He said competition from imported substandard plywood threatens not only public safety, but also the local manufacturing industry.

“While consumer safety has always been our priority, this is also our way of protecting legitimate manufacturers and importers, especially during this time of the pandemic,” he said.

As part of efforts to ensure consumer protection through compliance to standards, he said the DTI continues its review and consultations for other critical products such as steel sheets for roofing and general applications, ceramic tiles, concrete masonry units or hollow blocks and ceramic plumbing fixtures.