Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez has signed on Friday an order lifting the provisional safeguard duties on imported passenger cars (PCs) and light commercial vehicles (LCVs).
The order, to be published this week by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), follows a Tariff Commission (TC) report that found imports did not come in increased quantities, whether in absolute terms or relative to domestic production, during the period of investigation of 2014 to 2020.
The DTI will forward its decision to the Department of Finance which will direct the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to issue an order stopping the collection of the provisional safeguard duties in the form of cash bonds paid by importers.
A DTI source said this may take anywhere from one to two weeks.
The lifting of the provisional safeguard duty will take effect only upon the issuance by BOC of an order to do so.
Buyers which paid for the bonds from their dealers starting early this year will eventually be refunded.
PCs were slapped P70,000 per unit while LCVs were imposed P110,000 per unit.
