The Department of Trade and Industry has announced it has imposed safeguard duties of between P2,655 and P5,850/metric tonne on certain imported glass products to protect the local glass industry over the next 3 years. The new rates, due to take effect from June, will replace the provisional safeguard duties set last September. The Trade Secretary told the media that the Tariff Commission found evidence that the increased importation of glass products - particularly glass mirrors, figured glass and float glass products - had hurt the domestic industry. The trade department was a acting on the petition of Asahi Glass Philippines which claimed that cheap glass imports were flooding the local market. The DTI had set out to determine if there was an increase in the volume of imports and if these had caused serious injury to the domestic industry.
