WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SG/N/7/PHL/7 
G/SG/N/8/PHL/7 
G/SG/N/11/PHL/7 
27 February 2009 
 (09-1023) 
Committee on Safeguards Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION UNDER ARTICLE 12.4 OF THE AGREEMENT ON 
SAFEGUARDS BEFORE TAKING A PROVISIONAL SAFEGUARDS 
MEASURE REFERRED TO IN ARTICLE 6  
 
NOTIFICATION UNDER ARTICLE 12.1(b) OF THE  
AGREEMENT ON SAFEGUARDS ON FINDING 
A SERIOUS INJURY OR THREAT THEREOF  
CAUSED BY INCREASED IMPORTS 
 
NOTIFICATION PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 9, FOOTNOTE 2 
OF THE AGREEMENT ON SAFEGUARDS 
 
PHILIPPINES 
 
(Steel Angle Bar
) 
 
 
 The following notification, dated 24 February 2 009, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of the Philippines.1 
 
_______________ 
 
 
Pursuant to Article 12 of the WTO Agreemen t on Safeguards, the Permanent Mission of the 
Philippines to the WTO, hereby notifies the Committe e on Safeguards of the results of its preliminary 
determination on the investigation on the importati ons of steel angle bars and before taking a 
provisional safeguard measure under Article 6 of the Agreement on Safeguards.   
 
1. Product subject to the proposed safeguard measure  
 
 Steel Angle Bars – with the following sizes, i.e. 20mm x 20mm, 25mm x 25mm, 
30mm x 30mm, 38mm x 38mm, 50mm x 50mm, 63mm x 63mm, 63.5mm x 63.5 and 75mm x 75mm 
with thicknesses ranging from 2.0mm to 12mm, classified under AHTN Codes:  7216.2100, 
7216.5010 and 7216.5090.    
2. Proposed provisional safeguard measure  
  The provisional safeguard measure will take the form of a cash bond on all importations of 
steel angle bars with the following sizes, i.e. 20mm x 20mm, 25mm x 25mm, 30mm x 30mm, 
38mm x 38mm, 50mm x 50mm, 63mm x 63mm, 63.5mm x 63.5 and 75mm x 75mm with thicknesses ranging from 2.0mm to 12mm, classified under AHTN Codes:  7216.2100, 7216.5010 and 7216.5090 amounting to P
1.00/MT for a period of 200 days from the date of the issuance by the Bureau of 
                                                      
1 A copy of the 68-page non-confidential version of the preliminary determination of the investigating 
authority is available for consultation in Room 1028 at the Centre William Rappard.   G/SG/N/7/PHL/7 
G/SG/N/8/PHL/7 G/SG/N/11/PHL/7 
Page 2 
  
  Customs (BOC) of the relevant Customs Memorandum  Order (CMO) or 15 days after the publication 
of the Order issued by the Secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in two (2) newspapers of general circulation, which ever comes earlier.  The Order was signed by the Secretary 
of the DTI on 12 January 2009.   
  However, imports originating from developing countries covered by the "developing country" 
rule under Article 9 of the WTO Safeguards Agre ement shall not be subject to the provisional 
safeguard measure.  Attached as Annex A
 is the list of said developing countries.   
 
3. Proposed date of introduction of the provisional safeguard measure  
 
 The provisional safeguard measure is schedul ed to enter into force upon issuance of the 
relevant Customs Memorandum Order by the Philippi ne Bureau of Customs or 15 days after the 
publication of the DTI Order in two (2) newspapers of  general circulation, whichever comes earlier.   
 
4. Expected duration of the provisional safeguard measure  
 
 The provisional safeguard measure will be app lied for a time period of up to 200 days.   
 5. Preliminary determination that increased imports have caused or are threatening to 
cause serious injury  
 
 The Department of Trade and Industry found af ter preliminary determination that increased 
imports, both in absolute terms and relative to produ ction, were the substantial cause of the serious 
injury to the local industry.  The industry suffere d and is suffering significant overall impairment in 
its operations in terms of declining market sh are, reduced sales, domestic production and capacity 
utilization for the domestic market, profitability and productivity.    
6. Determination of critical circumstances wh ere delay would cause damage which would 
be difficult to repair  
 
 Imports increased in 2005 and 2006 equivalent to  359 per cent and 880 per cent, respectively.  
In 2007, import volume was 67 per cent over 2006 level and 1,534 per cent compared to 2005.  For the period January to September 2008, import volum e was 91 per cent of 2007 level.  The significant 
increase in the volume of imported angle bars in  2006 and 2007 has greatly affected the over-all 
performance of the local industry.  Losses from operati ons were attributed to declining sales volume.  
The surge in imports which started in 2005 resulted to the shutdown of the angle bar lines of two 
major manufacturers in 2007.  The rest of the industry players attributed the shut-down in operations to their inability to compete in the domestic market for angle bars because of the surge in imports.  
Operations of other industry players, aside from the three (3) petitioners, have also started to decline 
since 2005 due to the increasing volume of imports.  The local industry suffered a consistent decline 
in domestic sales during the period of investigation.  Market share of local product decreased to its 
lowest level at 57.84 per cent in 2007 as the shar e of imports to Philippine market significantly 
increased to 42.16 per cent.     G/SG/N/7/PHL/7 
 G/SG/N/8/PHL/7 
 G/SG/N/11/PHL/7 
 Page 3 
  
  ANNEX A
 
 
 
List of Developing Countries and Separate Cu stoms Territories Excluded from the Imposition 
of Provisional Safeguard Measure on Steel Angle Bars 
 
 
East & Southern 
Africa West Africa North Africa South Asia 
Angola 
Bostwana 
Burundi Comoros Congo. Dem. Rep. Djibouti 
Eritrea 
Ethiopioa Kenya Lesotho Madgascar 
Malawi 
Mauritius Mozambique Namibia Reunion Rwanda 
Seychelles 
Somalia South Africa Sudan Swaziland 
Tanzania 
Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe Benin 
Burkina Faso 
Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Rep. Chad 
Congo, Rep. 
Cote d' Ivoire Equatorial Guinea Gabon Gambia, The 
Ghana 
Guinea Guinea, Bissau Liberia Mali Mauritania 
Niger 
Negeria Sao Tome & Principe Senegal Sierra Leone 
Togo Algeria 
Egypt, Arab Rep. 
Libya Morocco Tunisia Afghanistan 
Bangladesh 
Bhutan British Indian Ocean   Territory East Timor 
India 
Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka 
      
 
  G/SG/N/7/PHL/7 
G/SG/N/8/PHL/7 G/SG/N/11/PHL/7 
Page 4 
  
   
Europe & Central 
Asia Middle East Americas East Asia & Pacific 
Albania 
Armenia 
Azerbaijan Belarus Bosnia & Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia 
Cyprus 
Czech Republic Estonia Georgia Greenland 
Hungary 
Kazakhstan Kyrgyz Republic Latvia Lithuania 
Macedonia, FYR 
Malta Moldova Poland Romania Russian Federation 
Slovakia 
Slovenia Tajikistan Turkey Turkmenistan 
Ukraine 
Uzbekistan Yugoslavia, Fed. Rep. Bahrain 
Iran, Islamic Rep. 
Iraq Israel Jordan Kuwait Lebanon 
Oman 
Qatar Saudi Arabia Syrian Arab Rep. United Arab Emirates 
West Bank & Gaza 
Yemen, Rep. Anguilla  
Antigua & Barbuda 
Argentina Aruba Bahamas Barbados Belize 
Bermuda 
Bolivia Brazil British Virgin Is. Cayman Is. 
Chile 
Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominica 
Dominican Rep. 
Ecuador El Salvador Falkland Is. (Malvinas) French Guiana Grenada 
Guadaloupe 
Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras 
Jamaica 
Martinique Mexico Montserrat Netherland Antilles 
Nicaragua 
Norfolk Is. Panama Paraguay Peru 
Puerto Rico 
St. Helena St. Kitts & Navis St. Lucia St. Pierre & Miquelon St. Vincent & the  
  Grenadines 
Suriname Trinidad & Tobago American Samoa 
Brunei Darussalam 
Cambodia Christmas Is. Cocos (Keeling) Is. Cook Is. Fiji 
French Polynesia 
Guam Hong Kong, China Indonesia Johnston Is. 
Kiribati 
Korea, Dem. Rep. Korea, Rep. Lao PDR Macao, China 
Malaysia 
Marshall Islands Micronesia, Fed. Sts. Midway Is. Mongolia Myanmar 
Nauru 
New Caledonia Niue Northern Marianas Is. Palau 
Pitcairn Is. 
Papua New Guinea Samoa Singapore Solomon Islands 
Thailand 
Tokelau Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu 
Viet Nam 
Wake Is. Wallis & Futuna Is.  G/SG/N/7/PHL/7 
 G/SG/N/8/PHL/7 
 G/SG/N/11/PHL/7 
 Page 5 
  
  Europe & Central 
Asia Middle East Americas East Asia & Pacific 
Turks & Caicos Is. 
Uruguay 
US Virgin Is. 
Venezuela 
  
 
    
 
  G/SG/N/7/PHL/7 
G/SG/N/8/PHL/7 G/SG/N/11/PHL/7 
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  IN THE MATTER OF THE PRELIMINARY DETERMINATION OF THE SAFEGUARD 
MEASURES CASE AGAINST THE IMPORTATION OF STEEL ANGLE BARS 
(CLASSIFIED UNDER AHTN CODES 7216.2100, 7216.501 1 AND 7216.5091)  
FROM VARIOUS COUNTRIES (SAFEGUARD CASE NO. 01-2008) 
 
ORDER 
 
 The Philippine Steel Angle Bar Industry, repr esented by Lunar Steel Corporation, Dragon 
Asia Metal Corporation and Cathay Metal Corporati on, filed a safeguard measures protest against the 
importation of steel angle bars (classified under AHTN Codes 7216.2100, 7216.5011 and 7216.5091) 
from various countries.  The protest alleged that steel angle bars are being imported in increased 
quantities and that as a result thereof causes seri ous injury to the domestic industry.   
 
 The period of investigation covered imports from 2003-2007.  For injury determination, the 
Department considered relevant in formation for the same period.   
 
WHEREFORE, IN VIEW THEREOF, the Depart ment of Trade and Industry, acting under 
Section 7 of RA 8800, the "Safeguard Measures Ac t", found after preliminary determination that 
increased imports of the product under consideration have caused serious injury to the domestic 
industry, particularly in terms of declining ma rket share, domestic sales, capacity utilization, 
production, profitability and productivity.   
  Pursuant to Section 8 of RA 8800 which provides that "in critical circumstances where a delay would cause damage which would be difficu lt to repair, and pursuant to a preliminary 
determination that increased imports are the subs tantial cause of serious injury to the domestic 
industry" provisional safeguard measures in the form of a cash bond amounting to P
1.00/MT shall be 
imposed on specific sizes of imported steel angle bars, i.e. 20mm x 20mm, 25mm x 25mm, 
30mm x 30mm, 38mm x 38mm, 50mm x 50mm, 63mm x 63mm, 63.5mm x 63.5 and 75mm x 75mm with thicknesses ranging from 2.0mm to 12mm, classified under AHTN Codes:  7216.2100, 7216.5010 and 7216.5090 for a period of two hundred (200) days from the date of issuance of the 
Bureau of Customs of the relevant Customs Memora ndum Order (CMO) or fifteen (15) days after the 
publication of the DTI Order in two (2) newspapers of  general circulation, whichever comes earlier.   
  However, imports originating from the devel oping countries listed in Annex A covered by 
Rule 8.8 of the IRR of RA 8800 shall not be s ubject to the provisional safeguard measure.   
 
 All importers of steel angle bars, regardless of port of exportation, are required to secure a 
Certificate of Country of Origin (CO) issued by the authorized agency/office in the source country of 
manufacture as authenticated by the Phil ippine Embassy/Consulate thereat.   
  Considering that steel angle bars are c overed by the ASEAN-CEPT Agreement and as 
provided under Articles 6 and 8 of the said Agreement, the Philippines is required to notify and 
accord adequate opportunity for consultation with the governments of the ASEAN countries 
concerned which maybe affected by the applica tion of provisional safeguard measures on imports 
sourced from said ASEAN countries.    
 The notification and consultation requirem ents of Article 12 of the WTO Safeguards 
Agreement and Section 17 of RA 8800 and its IRR shall be complied with.    G/SG/N/7/PHL/7 
 G/SG/N/8/PHL/7 
 G/SG/N/11/PHL/7 
 Page 7 
  
  The case records will be transmitted to the Tari ff Commission for formal investigation to 
determine whether or not there is a need  to impose a definitive safeguard measure. 
 
Let the Order be published in two (2) newspape rs of general circula tion and let individual 
notices be sent to all interested parties including the country members concerned.  SO ORDERED.  
 
12 January 2009   
PETER B. FAVILA 
Secretary 
 G/SG/N/7/PHL/7 
G/SG/N/8/PHL/7 G/SG/N/11/PHL/7 
Page 8 
  
  ANNEX A
 
 
 
List of Developing Countries and Separate Cu stoms Territories Excluded from the Imposition 
of Provisional Safeguard Measure on Steel Angle Bars 
 
 
East & Southern 
Africa West Africa North Africa South Asia 
Angola 
Bostwana 
Burundi Comoros Congo. Dem. Rep. Djibouti 
Eritrea 
Ethiopioa Kenya Lesotho Madgascar 
Malawi 
Mauritius Mozambique Namibia Reunion Rwanda 
Seychelles 
Somalia South Africa Sudan Swaziland 
Tanzania 
Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe Benin 
Burkina Faso 
Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Rep. Chad 
Congo, Rep. 
Cote d' Ivoire Equatorial Guinea Gabon Gambia, The 
Ghana 
Guinea Guinea, Bissau Liberia Mali Mauritania 
Niger 
Negeria Sao Tome & Principe Senegal Sierra Leone 
Togo Algeria 
Egypt, Arab Rep. 
Libya Morocco Tunisia Afghanistan 
Bangladesh 
Bhutan British Indian Ocean Territory East Timor India 
Maldives 
Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka 
      
 
   G/SG/N/7/PHL/7 
 G/SG/N/8/PHL/7 
 G/SG/N/11/PHL/7 
 Page 9 
  
   
Europe & Central  
Asia Middle East Americas East Asia & Pacific 
Albania 
Armenia 
Azerbaijan Belarus Bosnia & Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia 
Cyprus 
Czech Republic Estonia Georgia Greenland 
Hungary 
Kazakhstan Kyrgyz Republic Latvia Lithuania 
Macedonia, FYR 
Malta Moldova Poland Romania Russian Federation 
Slovakia 
Slovenia Tajikistan Turkey Turkmenistan 
Ukraine 
Uzbekistan Yugoslavia, Fed. Rep. Bahrain 
Iran, Islamic Rep. 
Iraq Israel Jordan Kuwait Lebanon 
Oman 
Qatar Saudi Arabia Syrian Arab Rep. United Arab 
  Emirates 
West Bank & Gaza Yemen, Rep. Anguilla  
Antigua & Barbuda 
Argentina Aruba Bahamas Barbados Belize 
Bermuda 
Bolivia Brazil British Virgin Is. Cayman Is. 
Chile 
Colombia Costa Rica Cuba Dominica 
Dominican Rep. 
Ecuador El Salvador Falkland Is. (Malvinas) French Guiana Grenada 
Guadaloupe 
Guatemala Guyana Haiti Honduras 
Jamaica 
Martinique Mexico Montserrat Netherland Antilles 
Nicaragua 
Norfolk Is. Panama Paraguay Peru 
Puerto Rico 
St. Helena St. Kitts & Navis St. Lucia St. Pierre & Miquelon St. Vincent & the  
  Grenadines 
Suriname Trinidad & Tobago American Samoa 
Brunei Darussalam 
Cambodia Christmas Is. Cocos (Keeling) Is. Cook Is. Fiji 
French Polynesia 
Guam Hong Kong, China Indonesia Johnston Is. 
Kiribati 
Korea, Dem. Rep. Korea, Rep. Lao PDR Macao, China 
Malaysia 
Marshall Islands Micronesia, Fed. Sts. Midway Is. Mongolia Myanmar 
Nauru 
New Caledonia Niue Northern Marianas Is. Palau 
Pitcairn Is. 
Papua New Guinea Samoa Singapore Solomon Islands 
Thailand 
Tokelau Tonga Tuvalu Vanuatu 
Viet Nam 
Wake Is. Wallis & Futuna Is. G/SG/N/7/PHL/7 
G/SG/N/8/PHL/7 G/SG/N/11/PHL/7 
Page 10 
  
  Europe & Central  
Asia Middle East Americas East Asia & Pacific 
Turks & Caicos Is. 
Uruguay 
US Virgin Is. 
Venezuela 
  
 
__________