Cement importers seek stricter quality tests

Cement importers have committed to support stricter quality tests for cement to prevent the entry of substandard or defective cement products into the domestic market.

The Philippine Cement Importers Association (PCIA) gave its full backing to the Bureau of Philippine Standards’ (BPS) new department administrative order (DAO) which requires mandatory certification of cement products.

PCIA executive director Dani Enriquez said the draft administrative order is consistent with international quality standards for cement.

At the same time, he said the group is pushing for preshipment testing so that substandard products would no longer be able to enter the Philippines.

“If the imported cement products are brought in and tested in the Philippines as proposed by some sectors, what happens if they fail the standards test?” Enriquez said.

He said if the products fail the test, the unscrupulous traders who brought them in may find a way to smuggle the goods instead of shipping these back to the country of origin.

Thus, he said the group still recommends that aside from the product quality license requirement for cement importers, a pre-shipment testing at the port of origin should be done as it prevents poor quality products from reaching the country.

Enriquez said pre-shipment testing prevents poor quality cement from landing in the Philippines.

“In actual practice, when cement is tested at the country of origin and if ever cement fails the quality test, they are simply rejected by the trader and replaced by good ones. This is also assured since the trader will not allow withdrawal from the Letter of Credit issued,” Enriquez said.

The BPS in its new DAO intends to conduct a redundant product verification test to counter-check the pre-shipment test report.

Enriquez said the new DAO is consistent with ISO standards and with the Key Principles and Obligations of the International Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade administered by the World Trade Organization.

He said the claim of some local cement manufacturers that the new DAO proposes diminution of the minimum quality standards is false and baseless.

“All Department of Trade and Industry-BPS DAO’s concerning Product Quality Standards and Testing methodologies are based on Philippine National Standards and ISO,” Enriquez said.

The BPS, headed by assistant secretary Ernesto Perez, has presented a new draft DAO to stakeholders that proposes options in accordance with international quality standards.

It contains provisions that repeal DAO 17-05 issued earlier this year which required pure-cement importers to obtain an import commodity clearance on top of the product safety mark, but exempted big cement manufacturers and importers from doing so, causing a dispute between the two groups.