The World Trade Organization approved the Philippines’ petition to initiate an investigation whether safeguard measures are needed on the importation of high-density polyethylene and linear low- density polyethylene pellets and granules from various countries.
The petition filed by the Department of Trade and Industry on behalf of JG Summit Petrochemical Corp. sought the imposition of safeguard duties on imported HDPE and LLDPE amid an alleged upsurge in imports in the last five years.
The Philippines launched safeguard investigation on HDPE and LLDPE pellets and granules on Sept. 4, 2020, when it notified the WTO’s Committee on Safeguards about its plans to conduct a “preliminary safeguard investigation”.
The period of investigation covers imports of HDPE from 2015 to 2019. A safeguard investigation seeks to determine whether increased imports of a product are causing, or is threatening to cause, serious injury to a domestic industry.