As a refresher, DTI Department Administrative Order (DAO) 20-11 imposed provisionary safeguard measures in the form of cash bonds in the amount of P 70,000 for passenger vehicles and P 110,000 for commercial vehicles.

This includes countries such as Thailand, Indonesia (for passenger vehicles), Japan, and China—the biggest sources of imported vehicles in the country. It does, however, exempt countries such as Malaysia and India as well as luxury vehicles.

However, taking into consideration a World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement on safeguards that excludes the imposition of safeguard measures originating from developing countries, the DTI has amended its list, adding more countries exempted from safeguard duties.

You can check out the full list of countries below, but it doesn’t exact change the big picture as the country’s primary source of vehicles—Thailand, Japan, China—are still included in the safeguard duties list.

Carmakers have taken different steps with Toyota and Isuzu offering refundable safeguard deposits, while Geely and GAC Motor increasing their prices altogether.