Finally, after the long woes of consumers, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has issued an order to stop the imposition of safeguard duty on imported passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.

There will be no more imposition of safeguard duty on imported completely built-up (CBU) passenger cars and imported CBU light commercial vehicles (LCVs). Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez signed the order to dismiss the case filed by the Philippine Metalworkers Alliance (PMA). This is after determining that there is no surge in the importation of CBU passenger cars and LCVs during the whole period of investigation.

The Tariff Commission said, “Considering the CBU passenger cars and CBU light commercial vehicles were not imported in increased quantities whether absolute or relative to domestic production during the period of investigation, the Commission hereby terminates its formal investigation and recommends that no definitive general safeguard measure be imposed on importations of the CBU passenger cars and CBU light commercial vehicles subject of this investigation.”

In 2019, the Philippine Metalworkers Alliance (PMA) submitted an application to investigate possible safeguard measures on imported automobiles to the Department of Trade and Industry. This prompted the DTI Secretary to issue the provisional safeguard duty we have right now. Fortunately, after a lengthy investigation, the Tariff Commission ruled that there is no import surge during the period of investigation hence there is no need for the imposition of safeguard duty.

The signed order from the Department of Trade and Industry will be published then forwarded to the Department of Finance with a request to order the Bureau of Customs to stop imposing the cash bond and return all cash bonds posted by importers on the affected motor vehicles. The actual lifting of the safeguard duty will take effect once the Bureau of Customs has issued an order for the matter.