On April 20^th, 2021, Department of Trade and Industry of the Philippines (DTI) has issued the notice of initiation of an investigation on the application for an anti-dumping duty on cement from Viet Nam (AD case no. AD01-2021).  Request for investigation on application for an anti-dumping is the most international trade remedy under WTO Agreement which Vietnam company should hire local international trade lawyers to respond to authority in the Philippines.

According to the notice, DTI has officially received properly documented applications from Cemex Philippines, Holcim Philippines, Inc., and Republic Cement Builders and Building Materials, Inc., for the initiation of an anti-dumping investigation on cement from Viet Nam. These companies’ output of like product constitutes 70% of the total domestic production of cement. The applications allege that cement products are being imported from Viet Nam at dumped prices which cause material injury to the local industry.

The Department acting under Section 3 (a) of RA8752, the Philippines Anti-Dumping Act of 1999, reviewed the evidence adduced in the applications and has determined the existence of sufficient evidence to justify the initiation of an investigation. The products covered by the investigation are cement classified under AHTN Codes 2523.2990 and 2523.9000. The period of investigation (POI) for dumping is from July 2019 to June 2020, while the POI for injury is from 2017 to June 2020. For 2019 (July to December), dumping margins are alleged to range from US$1.75/MT to US$5.36/MT or 3.49% to 10.66%; For 2020 (January to June), the dumping margins are alleged to range from US$1.66/MT to US$6.54/MT or 3.31% to 14.46%.

Interested parties are invited to submit their comments, evidences, and information or reply to the questionnaire to dispute the allegations contained in the application. Submissions are made within thirty (30) days from receipt of the notice.

It should be noted that all uncooperative behaviors or insufficient cooperation will lead to the result that the Investigating Body will use adverse available evidence or apply anti-dumping duty proposed by the applications. In case of being applied anti-dumping duty, competitive advantage will decline, which results in the risk of losing a part or the whole export market to domestic manufacturing industry of the Philippines and/or competitors from other countries.

ANT Lawyers is a law firm in Vietnam, recognized by Legal500, IFLR1000. We are an exclusive Vietnam member of Prea Legal, the global law firm network covering more than 150 jurisdictions. The firm provides a range of legal services to multinational and domestic clients.