Government addresses dumping issue

The government continues to seek various trade remedy measures to address the private sector’s rising concerns about dumping.

This was the assurance given yesterday by Board of Investments (BOI) executive director Elmer Hernandez even as he admitted that the current measures which the government relies on "are still not much."

In a presentation during the 28th Philippine Business Conference, Hernandez discussed the three trade remedy measures currently being used by the government, namely anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguards.

"The Anti-Dumping Act and the Countervailing Duty Act both provide a provisional measure which is requiring a dumping or countervailing bond with the definitive action being the imposition of a dumping or countervailing duty," Hernandez said.

"The Safeguard Measures Act provides, on the other hand, general safeguards with the provisional measure being a tariff increase and the definitive actions being a tariff increase and imposition of quota restrictions," she added.

Special safeguards include an additional duty not exceeding 1/3 of the existing rate of duty during the year action is taken for agricultural products.

"So far, special safeguards have been imposed on onions and chickens," he said.

General safeguards, Hernandez went on, have been extended for ceramic floor tiles, wall tiles and cement.