The European Union has opposed a petition for the imposition of safeguard measures, punitive tariffs on imports, on newsprint and galvanized iron stressing this kind of trade remedy covers all countries and is difficult to prove.

Walter van Hattum, Head of Economic and Trade Section of the EU Delegation to the Philippines, told reporters the delegation has already submitted its position paper to the Department of Trade and Industry.

The DTI launched an investigation on both cases in September last year following the petition filed by Trust International Paper Co. (TIPCO) for newsprint and Puyat Steel Corp. for galvanized iron (GI) and pre-painted galvanized iron sheets (PPGI).

Both petitioners claim sudden surge in imports of newsprint, GI and PPGI causing injury to the domestic industries in terms of market share, sales, capacity utilization, productivity, profitability and undercutting domestic prices. Newsprint is largely used for newspaper printing. GI and PPGI are roofing materials.

Safeguard measures cover imports from all countries while anti-dumping is country specific.

Van Hattum believes that EU should not be included in the safeguard measure on both accounts stressing it has very stringent rules and very strong competition policy.

“We wish the Philippines would not have to use safeguard instruments,” he said urging for the imposition instead of anti-dumping measure.

He denied EU companies are engaged in unfair trade competition. He believes that if the Philippines will pursue an anti-dumping case, it should spare the EU.

He explained that with anti-dumping, the EU is confident of winning its case noting that it has not lost a case before the multilateral trading body.

On the other hand, the safeguard is the nuclear option as it has to establish a sudden surge in imports that affect a local industry.

“Now is the move justifiable in terms of the effect,” he said adding that EU can always challenge the imposition of the safeguard measure before the multilateral trading body. He further said EU has a good record at winning its case before the WTO.

“In general it is better to avoid using safeguards, we only use that in case of a real emergency because it is such a draconian measure, it goes against all your trading partners. So, it is better to target those who flood the market,” he said.

Source: mb.com.ph