Published March 2, 2021, 6:00 AM The Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) has defended the Department of Trade and Industry’s imposition of safeguard measures and non-tariff barriers (NTBs) on certain imports to protect domestic industries, but the country’s anti-trust watchdog also equally stressed that such legitimate measures can be challenged if the injury caused is born out by inherent inefficiencies of processes that incumbents have gotten used to. PCC Commissioners led by Chairman Arsenio Balisacan, and Commissioners Johannes Bernabe and Emerson B. Aquende made this point during a press conference at the 4th Manila Forum on Competition in Developing Countries amid increasing number of safeguards and non-tariff measures being imposed by Asian countries, especially during the pandemic year.