Philippines announces new duty on imported cement

The Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will impose a general safeguard duty on imported cement for a three-year period to protect domestic product. The measure will take effect 15 days after the announcement made on Tuesday.

"We are deciding on the imposition of definitive safeguard duty of PHP250/t (US$4.8/t) or PHP10/40kg bag for the first year of the implementation to encourage and challenge the local cement industries to be globally competitive," said the DTI in a statement.

However, the amount is lower than the Tariff Commission's recommendation to apply a safeguard duty of PHP297/t or PHP12/40kg bag, which it determined as a like product to domestic cement, or the Type 1 and Type 1P products, according to Business World.

The DTI has recommended that the duty will be reduced for the second and third years of implementation. "Thus, it is recommended that the amount of the safeguard duty be reduced to PHP9/40kg bag for the second year and to PHP8/40kg bag for the third year."