The Philippines Reduced the Safeguard Tax for Indonesian Glass Products

Jakarta, February 23rd 2012 – The Philippines authority, through the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) lowered the Safeguard Tax on clear float glass (CFG) and tinted float glass (TFG) originating from Indonesia since 13 December 2011. This tariff of the Safeguard Tax applied to CFG products is ₱ 3,234.41 per million ton and ₱ 4,085.56 per million ton for TFG. Formerly the Philippines authority imposed the Safeguard Tax of ₱ 3,404.64 per million ton and ₱ 4,300.59 per million ton respectively for CFG and TFG products.

The Director for Trade Security of the Ministry of Trade, Ernawati said that the deduction of the tariff for Safeguard Tax was a result of the review by the DTI on the domestic industry in the Philippines and from the input of those parties that were imposed the Safeguard Tax. Ernawati explained that during the review process, the government of Indonesia and the Indonesian manufacturers and exporters were very cooperative in providing input to every review conducted by the DTI. “The result was fair enough, and the reduced tariff should have a positive effect on the exports of float glass from Indonesia to the Philippines,” she said. 

The Safeguard Tax has been imposed since 2004, and shall expire in 2014. Based on the data of the Ministry of Trade, the export of glass products and goods made from glass from Indonesia to the Philippines has declined although not significantly in the past two years. In the period of January-September 2010, the export volume of both products reached a level of 47,864.5 tons with a value of USD 20.08 million. Meanwhile, in the same period in 2011, the export volume dropped to 47,473.02 million tons with a value of USD 20.03 million. The total export of glass products and glass goods from Indonesia to the Philippines in 2010 reached 71,682 tons with a value of USD 30 million.

Source www.kemendag.go.id, accessed on February 27th 2012