Unfair trade practices

Just recently, the Vietnam Trade Office in the Philippines advised Vietnamese cement exporters to actively cooperate in the investigation to avoid unfavorable outcomes after the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) imposed safeguard duties on cement imports on top of the regular import duties.

- MARY ANN LL. REYES

Vietnam News reported on March 5 that according to Phung Van Thanh, trade counselor at the Vietnam Trade Office in the Philippines, the DTI, during its preliminary investigation, identified domestic market, including Vietnamese companies and that while the DTI sent questionnaires to these exporters, only nine out of 33 responded, including six Vietnamese exporters.

To minimize potential losses, the report stated that Thanh has recommended that during the upcoming formal investigation, Vietnamese cement exporters should actively provide relevant information to the investigating authorities. He emphasized that this is crucial to prevent unfavorable decisions based on incomplete or preexisting information.

He further emphasized that the core aspect of a safeguard investigation is to assess the severe injury suffered by the Philippine cement industry due to imported cement. Therefore, it is necessary for a representative from the Vietnam cement industry to bring businesses together, collectively review the situation, provide information, and have a unified voice with the Philippine investigating agency in reviewing and analyzing the actual impact, he said.

Last Feb. 20, the DTI issued an order imposing provisional safeguard duties of P400 per ton or around $6.9 per ton on two types of imported cement, namely Portland cement and blended cement, to protect domestic cement production after conducting a preliminary safeguards investigation on imports of these cement types from 2019 to 2024.