Domestic downstream industries would like the government to lower the most-favored nation (MFN) tariffs on midstream petrochemical products to 5 percent from the present 15 percent to give flexibility in terms of sourcing given the supply coming from the ASEAN region is very limited.

Philippines Plastics Industry Association (PPIA) president Eduardo Uy said the association has yet to formalize this request to the Department of Trade and Industry.

"Supply from ASEAN is not very reliable because they are producing selected kinds of petrochemical products only," Uy said.

Sources of midstream petrochemical products outside of ASEAN include Saudi Arabia particularly Qatar, U.S., Japan and India.

So far, imported petrochemical products from the MFN-countries account for 25 percent of the total domestic requirement while ASEAN accounts for 50 percent and 30 percent from the local suppliers.

Domestic local requirements were placed at 700,000 metric tons only.

The local petrochemical supplies come form the JG Summit Petrochemical Corp. which is producing high density polyethylene (HDP) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE). (BCM)