Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

CHAPTER I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

SECTION 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the "Safeguard Measures Act".

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. - The State shall promote the competitiveness of domestic industries and producers based on sound industrial and agricultural development policies, and the efficient use of human, natural and technical resources. In pursuit of this goal and in the public interest, the State shall provide safeguard measures to protect domestic industries and producers from increased imports which cause or threaten to cause serious injury to those domestic industries and producers.

SEC. 3. Scope of Application. - This Act shall apply to products being imported into the country irrespective of source.

SEC. 4. Definitions. - For the purposes of this Act, the following terms are defined as follows:

(a) "Agricultural product" refers to a specific commodity under Chapters 1 to 24 of the Harmonized System (HS) of Commodity Classification as used in the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines;

(b) "Commission" shall refer to the Tariff Commission;

? "Consumers" shall refer to natural persons or organized consumer groups who are purchasers, lessees, recipients, or prospective purchasers, lessees, recipients of consumer products, services or credit;

(d) "Critical circumstances" shall mean circumstances where there is prima facie evidence that increased imports, whether absolute or relative to domestic production, are a substantial cause of serious injury or threat thereof to the domestic industry and that delay in taking action under this Act would cause damage to the industry that would be difficult to repair;

(e) "Directly competitive products" shall mean domestically-produced substitutable products;

(f) "Domestic industry" shall refer to the domestic producers, as a whole, of like or directly competitive products manufactured or produced in the Philippines or those whose collective output of like or directly competitive products constitutes a major proportion of the total domestic production of those products;

(g) "Interested parties" shall include domestic producers, consumers, importers and exporters of the products under consideration;

(h) "Like product" shall mean a domestic product which is identical, I.e., alike in all respects to the imported product under consideration, or in the absence of such a product, another domestic product which, although not alike in all respects, has characteristics closely resembling those of the imported product under consideration;

(I) "Market access opportunity" shall mean the percentage of the total annual volume of imports of an agricultural product to the corresponding total volume of domestic consumption of the said product in the country in the three (3) immediately preceding years for which data are available;

(j) "Minimum Access Volume (MAV)" is the amount of imports of an agricultural product allowed to be imported into the country at a customs duty lower than the out-quota customs duty;

(k) "Positive adjustment to import competition" shall refer to the ability of the domestic industry to compete successfully with imports after the termination of any safeguard measure, or to the orderly transfer of resources to other productive pursuits; and to the orderly transition of dislocated workers in the industry to other productive pursuits;

(l) "Price difference" is the amount obtained after subtracting the c.I.f. import price from the trigger price;

(m) "Product" refers to articles, commodities or goods;

(n) "Secretary" shall refer to either the Secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry in the case of non-agricultural products or the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture in the case of agricultural products;

(o) "Serious injury" shall mean a significant impairment in the position of a domestic industry after evaluation by competent authorities of all relevant factors of an objective and quantifiable nature having a bearing on the situation of the industry concerned, in particular, the rate and amount of the increase in imports of the product concerned in absolute and relative terms, the share of the domestic market taken by increased imports, changes in levels of sales, production, productivity, capacity utilization, profit and losses, and employment;

(p) "Substantial cause" means a cause which is important but not less than any other cause;

(q) "Threat of serious injury" shall be understood to mean serious injury that is imminent;

? "Trigger price" is the price benchmark for applying the special safeguard measure; and

(s) "Trigger volume" is the volume benchmark for applying the special safeguard measure.

CHAPTER II

GENERAL SAFEGUARD MEASURE

SEC. 5. Conditions for the Application of General Safeguard Measures. ? The Secretary shall apply a general safeguard measure upon a positive final determination of the Commission that a product is being imported into the country in increased quantities, whether absolute or relative to the domestic production, as to be a substantial cause of serious injury or threat thereof to the domestic industry; however, in the case of non-agricultural products, the Secretary shall first establish that the application of such safeguard measures will be in the public interest.

SEC. 6. Initiation of Action Involving General Safeguard Measure. - Any person, whether natural or juridical, belonging to or representing a domestic industry may file with the Secretary a verified petition requesting that action be taken to remedy the serious injury or prevent the threat thereof to the domestic industry caused by increased imports of the product under consideration.

The petition shall include documentary evidence supporting the facts that are essential to establish:

(1) an increase in imports of like or directly competitive products;

(2) the existence of serious injury or threat thereof to the domestic

industry; and

(3) the causal link between the increased imports of the product under consideration and the serious injury or threat thereof.

The Secretary shall review the accuracy and adequacy of the evidence adduced in the petition to determine the existence of a prima facie case that will justify the initiation of a preliminary investigation within five (5) days from receipt of the petition.

The Secretary may also initiate action upon the request of the President; or a resolution of the House or Senate Committee on Agriculture, or House or Senate Committee on Trade and Commerce.

In the absence of such a petition, the Secretary may, motu proprio, initiate a preliminary safeguard investigation if there is evidence that increased imports of the product under consideration are a substantial cause of, or are threatening to substantially cause, serious injury to the domestic industry.

The Secretary may extend legal, technical and other assistance to the concerned domestic producers and their organizations at all stages of the safeguard action.

SEC. 7. Preliminary Determination - Not later than thirty (30) days from receipt of the petition or a motu proprio initiation of the preliminary safeguard investigation, the Secretary shall, on the basis of the evidence and submission of the interested parties, make a preliminary determination that increased imports of the product under consideration are a substantial cause of, or threaten to substantially cause, serious injury to the domestic industry. In the process of conducting a preliminary determination, the Secretary shall notify the interested parties and shall require them to submit their answers within five (5) working days from receipt of such notice. The notice shall be deemed received five (5) working days from the date of transmittal to the respondent or appropriate diplomatic representative of the country of exportation or origin of the imported product under consideration.