DTI to ask SC to reconsider ruling on SCCC's cement importation

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will file a motion for reconsideration with the Supreme Court (SC) regarding the SC’s recent ruling nullifying the imposition of safeguard duty on imported cement by the DTI on Southern Cross Cement Corp. (SCCC).

Trade and Industry Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said the SC ruling is "a blow to our ability to implement our policies and protect our industries against competition."

He explained that the DTI is tasked to create a level playing field for all players.

The SC ruling, Purisima said, "affects our ability to provide a level playing field."

Purisima assured that the DTI would exhaust all legal avenues to appeal the SC decision.

The SC recently ruled that the DTI had no right to impose the safeguard measures against SCCC without a positive recommendation from the Tariff Commission.

The DTI, however, is insisting that the Safeguard Measures Act states that the DTI Secretary, with respect to non-agricultural products, has the power to determine and decide whether to reduce, modify and terminate, or to render final decisions on safeguard measures.

Purisima claims that at the time when Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas II imposed the safeguard duty on SCCC, the cement industry needed protection. "At the time, the local cement manufacturers had been losing their market share to imports and were laying off their workers," Purisima said.

Following the imposition of the safeguard duty, local cement manufacturers made good on their promise to government to bring down local cement prices.

The Cement Manufacturers Association of the Philippines (CeMAP) is also set to file its own motion for reconsideration with the SC.

CeMAP legal counsel Edcel Lagman had said CeMAP would await the Court’s official notice of the decision and, in the event the decision is adverse to the Philippine government and to the country’s local cement industry, CeMAP would file a motion for reconsideration of the decision.