DTI bats for stronger trade remedy laws

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will push for amendments of the country’s trade remedy laws to strengthen and maximize defenses of domestic industries against other countries’ unfair trade practices, such as dumping, export subsidies and import surges.

DTI Undersecretary Ceferino S. Rodolfo stressed the need to amend laws on anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguards for easier, simpler and transparent implementation.

The country’s trade remedies are contained under Republic Act 8752 otherwise known as the Anti-Dumping Law of 1999 to protect against dumping of imported products; Republic Act 8800 known as the Safeguard Measures Act passed in 2000 to protect against abnormal import surges; and Countervailing Duty under RA 8751 against subsidized imported products.

These laws, which falls under the trade remedies category, refer to what is remedial action that an industry can go on instances of unfair trade like products being dumped into the country or export subsidized by other countries or surge in imports that led to an irreversible injury to a domestic industry. But DTI said the current procedures and processes in the availment of these trade remedies are circuitous and time consuming that before a case is filed, the affected domestic industry is already dead or the injury has become irreversible.

“It is so difficult to invoke these trade remedies,” Rodolfo lamented.

For instance, he said, filing an antdumping case will commence with the Bureau of Import Services, which would require time to check if there is a prima facie evidence of dumping. If there is, the BIS can ask for provisional duties and only after this that the case can be elevated to the Tariff Commission, which will conduct public hearings, submissions of documents, before making a decision whether or not to impose a definitive antidumping duty. The DTI will then issue a Department Order for the imposition of the definitive anti-dumping duty, if affirmative, or the release of cash bond, if negative. Rodolfo said the DTI would like to shorten this process and eliminate the redundant procedures, particularly the imposition of provisional duties.

Rodolfo cited the case of the Marikina shoe industry which eventually died because of the difficulty to invoke a trade remedy against a trading partner. Under the law, the before the government can invoke a trade remedy it needs the support of majority of the industry players but it is difficult to consolidate the Marikina shoemakers. “So before we could invoke the trade remedy, the industry has died already,” he said.

The best thing to do, he said, is that once import surges get abnormally high there should be an immediate implementation of an appropriate trade remedy law, which is safeguard measure. If there is an issue of export subsidy by other countries, the most applicable trade remedy is countervailing duty and on instances of dumping, there should be immediate anti-dumping measures.

“This has been long standing issue that we need to fix,” he stressed.

Rodolfo also said that this move is not going towards trade protectionism, but rather strengthening of the country’s industry defenses against unfair trade practices. “This is not trade protectionism because we are within the laws,” he said noting that this is allowed under the World Trade Organization rules, which other countries, except for the Philippines, are fully utilizing and maximizing to protect their domestic industries against unfair trade practices. (BCM)