DTI junks dumping charges vs SC Johnson

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has formally junked dumping charges against SC Johnson Philippines and has ordered the Bureau of Customs to release the cash bond deposited by the company after it was accused of dumping mosquito coils in the country.

In an order signed by Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo, it stated that the existence of dumping was not established. As a result, the Tariff Commission (TC), which investigated the matter for a year, recommended the dismissal of the anti-dumping case against imported mosquito coils from Indonesia.

Earlier, SC Johnson said they were pleased with the favorable decision made by the TC with regard to the formal investigation on an anti-dumping petition filed by the Philippine Mosquito Coil Industry against the importation of mosquito coils from Indonesia.

“The Tariff Commission’s finding supports our view that DTI’s preliminary decision that mosquito coils produced in Indonesia and imported by SC Johnson, were “dumped” in the Philippine market, was not supported by the facts,” the company said.

The complainant, local mosquito coil producer Green Coil Industries Inc., filed the case saying that they were  hurt by the sale of imported mosquito coils manufactured by P.T. Johnson Home Hygiene Products (JHHP), an affiliated company of SC Johnson.

Green Coil claimed that due to import dumping, its factory utilization had gone down to 40 percent in 2008 from 80 percent in 2006. Green Coil complained that the Baygon mosquito coils are priced P0.11 in the Philippines when it costs P0.185 in Indonesia where the coils are made.

SC Johnson imports Baygon Anti-Dengue mosquito coils and Baygon Scented mosquito coils from JHHP while Green Coil is the manufacturer of the brands Lion Tiger, Lion-Katol and Tiger-Katol.

According to TC computation, the dumping margin for mosquito coil is $.08 per case or 0.98 percent of the export price. This is way below the minimum threshold set by the government which is two percent. This means that there is no dumping as per government calculations.

DTI imposed a four month anti-dumping duty to SC Johnson last March after conducting its preliminary investigation. The investigation showed that there is just cause to impose the provisional anti-dumping duty.

Dumping occurs when any specific kind or class of foreign article is imported or brought into the Philippines at a price less than its normal value.