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The Department of Agriculture has institutionalized an office that will implement trade remedy laws as it applies to agriculture and fishery products
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DA through Department Order No. 19 series of 2024 reconstituted the Trade Remedies Unit into the Trade Remedy Office
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The TRO will act on all matters concerning the implementation of trade remedy laws and will act as the DA central data and information repository of trade statistics and remedies
The Department of Agriculture (DA) has institutionalized an office that will implement trade remedy laws as it applies to agriculture and fishery products.
The DA through Department Order (DO) No. 19 series of 2024 reconstituted the Trade Remedies Unit (TRU) into the Trade Remedy Office (TRO), which will be an ad hoc unit under the direct technical and administrative control and supervision of the director of the DA-Policy Research Service.
DO No. 19, signed on October 18, took effect immediately.
The creation of TRU in DA and similar units in the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Tariff Commission (TC) was designed to ensure efficient and effective implementation of various trade remedy laws that provide mechanisms to safeguard domestic industries, such as Republic Act (RA) No. 8751 (Countervailing Act of 1999), RA No. 8752 (Anti -Dumping Act of 1999), and RA No. 8800 (Safeguard Measures Act of 2000).
DO 19 noted that the current organizational structure of the TRU has integrated it into the broader organizational framework resulting “in challenges related to its effectiveness and efficiency in handling complex trade remedy cases.”
It said the need for the TRO to operate as a specialized and dedicated office “has been recognized in order to comply with the legal and administrative requirements and enhance its capacity to address trade remedy matters with greater focus and efficiency.”
The TRO will act on all matters concerning the implementation of trade remedy laws as it applies to agriculture and fishery products in coordination with the DTI, TC, and relevant stakeholders. This includes the acceptance, review, and assessment of trade remedy cases; collection, consolidation, processing, management, review, analysis, and verification of relevant data and information; and investigation, enforcement, review, and monitoring and evaluation of trade remedy cases and corresponding measures taken.
The TRO will also serve as DA’s central data and information repository of local and international trade statistics and trade remedies, supply and demand, production and prices, industry profiles, market studies, and similar data and information sources.
Moreover, it will act as the technical and administrative secretariat of the Oversight Committee for the Remedies Fund, and will manage the appropriate use of the Remedies Fund based on prescribed allowable expense items. The Remedies Fund is where 50% of collections arising from related safeguard measures of the DA pursuant to RA 8800 accrue effective since 2017.
Pending approval by the Department of Budget and Management of an organic division within the DA to be composed of permanent plantilla personnel, the TRO will be composed of three sections—the Trade Remedies Data Management, Research, and Advocacy Section; Trade Remedies Investigation, Enforcement, and Monitoring and Evaluation Section; and Trade Remedies Fund Management and Administrative Support Section.
A division chief assisted by three section chiefs will head the TRO. – Roumina Pablo
