11 manufacturing sectors under PCC watch

by Richmond Mercurio (The Philippine Star), Jun 24, 2018

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) is keeping a close watch on various „priority“ industries in the local manufacturing sector for possible anti-competitive practices.

PCC has tapped a third party for a scoping study on the manufacturing sector.

The study seeks to provide an overview of the state and trends related to competition in manufacturing, as well as formulate a prioritization matrix to serve as basis for the PCC in its advocacy initiatives and in selecting sectors for in-depth market studies.

“The scoping study is very useful for the commission for the purposes of its prioritization. Because we have limited resources, we want to make sure that the cases we take in, the sectors that we prioritize on, are the ones that have potential high impact as well as high probability of success,” PCC chair Arsenio Balisacan said.

“We have anti-competitive practices. The question is where is it? What sectors? If we identify these sectors, then that will be a start. From there we will bring in other considerations,” he added.

Based on the initial result of the scoping study for the manufacturing industry, 11 sectors have been included in the suggested priority list.

These are the manufacture of refined petroleum products, fertilizers and nitrogen compounds, milk-based infants’ and dietetic food, dairy products, agricultural and forestry machinery, pens and pencils, sports and energy drink, refractory ceramic products, power driven hand tools, cement and sugar.

Among the indicators considered in coming up with the priority list were firm concentration in each sector and price-cost margins.

“We have an initial list so we will bring in other considerations. If this sector has high probability that there are anti-competitive practices, the next question we ask is how important is that to consumers and to the overall economy, because we want to prioritize those sectors that would have significant impact and higher probability of success when we actually take it as a case,” Balisacan said.

Balisacan said the final prioritization matrix for the manufacturing sector would be completed and released next month.