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The government must open up the steel industry and allow local firms to buy steel from abroad without additional duty, a consumer watchdog said yesterday.

“You should open up the steel industry for everybody. It’s a basic raw material,” Raul T. Concepcion, chairman of the Consumer and Oil Price Watch told reporters yesterday.

According to Concepcion, the additional duty must be removed in order to make other products more competitive.

A three percent tariff is imposed on the importation of hot rolled coils (HRC) and seven percent for cold rolled coils (CRC).

Indian firm Global Steelworks International Inc., the largest producer of steel in the country, is asking the government to increase the steel tariff in order to protect the company from imported steel.

Concepcion said no way will he agree to give full protection to a 100-percent foreign company operating in the Philippines.

“When they (Global Steel) went and bought National Steel, they knew what they were getting into, that it was dilapidated,” Concepcion explained.

Meanwhile, the Vietnamese government has accused Global Steel of using forged and fake documents in order to avail of the zero percent tariff. The discovery has led to the revocation of duty free privileges and the imposition of a seven percent duty on CRC from the Philippines.

Leaders of the steel industry, especially those in the galvanizing sector, expressed concern that the impending increase on tariff rates on HRC and CRC as provided under Executive Order 375 will lead to higher prices of construction materials.

Manufacturers, specifically those in the iron and steel industry, explained that raw materials for the manufacture of reinforcing bars and roofing sheets such as billets, HRC, CRC and zinc are basically imported.