The government of Indonesia has expressed its intention to avail of its right to request for compensation should the Philippines extend the imposition of safeguard duties on imported cement.
Natan Kambuno, of the Directorate General of International Trade in the Ministry of Trade of Indonesia, told the Tariff Commission hearing yesterday his government reserves its right to request rate compensation should the existing safeguard measure on cement is extended.
The hearing is in relation to the petition of local cement manufacturers to extend the additional duties on imported ordinary Portland cement, type !one and blended cement which has been in effect since October 2019.
Kambuno told the hearing Indonesia should be excluded from the list of countries that are slapped with the additional duty.
“The Philippines only imported 532,000 metric tons of the cement from Indonesia from 2019 to 2021. With such a total volume of inputs, Indonesia only accounts for just 2.7 percent of the Philippine imports during the period,” Kambuno said.
He said as a developing country whose export is less than 3 percent of the Philippines imports of the subject product, Indonesia fulfills the requirements for the de minimis as stated in the agreement on safeguards and thus should be excluded from the extension of safeguard measures.
Kambuno added the government of Indonesia has noted an anti- dumping investigation on cement from Vietnam was initiated in April 2021 and subsequently, the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry imposed provisional anti dumping fees on Vietnamese cement in November 2021.
“Having considered the implementation of provisional anti dumping duties on imported cement from Vietnam, which accounts for more than 80 percent of the Philippine total cement imports, the government of Indonesia believes that the existing safeguard measures shoul not be extended further,” Kambuno said.
He added the expiring safeguard measures will be replaced with a more “effective and targetted anti-dumping trade measure so an extension of safeguard measure will not be necessary or appropriate anymore.”
Kambuno cited a final report by the TC which showed the Philippine cement industry has made a significant positive adjustment to competition and is moving towards increased competitiveness.
He said based on the report, local manufacturers could also continue their prominence in the domestic market despite the complex situation due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
He also said the TC found the domestic cement industry is improving its efficiency levels, and hence increasing its ability to compete successfully with imports.
Kombuna said Indonesia believes safeguard measure is an extra ordinary remedy to be taken only in emergency situations.
