Uniaxial tensile testing at strain rates ranging from 10-3 to 10-1 s-1 was carried out to study the rate-dependent me-chanical behavior for poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) used in the packaging industry. The experimental results show that a rate-dependent plastic behavior exists for PET material. The value of the yield strength was found to increase with the increasing strain rate. A new constitutive model based on the improved Cowper-Symonds rate-dependent constitutive model is proposed to describe the mechanical behavior of PET material in the strain rate ranging from 10-3 to 10-1 s-1, providing more accurate material data for the subsequent simulation analysis of drop test and dynamic buckling. The predictions obtained using the proposed model are compared with experimental results of the improved Cowper-Symonds model. The simulating results of the proposed model agree well with the experimental data. For a low strain rate, the predictions of this model are more precise than those obtained using the improved Cowper-Symonds model. This confirms that the new constitutive model is suitable for describing the me-chanical behavior of PET material at a low strain rate and modeling impact problem. Uniaxial tensile testing at strain rates ranging from 10-3 to 10-1 s-1 was carried out to study the rate-dependent me-chanical behavior for poly (ethylene terephthalate) (PET) used in the packaging industry. The experimental results show that a rate-dependent plastic behavior exists for PET material. The value of the yield strength was found to increase with the increasing strain rate. A new constitutive model based on the improved Cowper-Symonds rate-dependent constitutive model is proposed to describe the mechanical behavior of PET material in the strain rate ranging from 10-3 to 10-1 s-1, providing more accurate material data for the subsequent simulation analysis of drop test and dynamic buckling. The predictions obtained using the proposed model are compared with experimental results of the improved Cowper-Symonds model. The simulating results of the proposed model agree well with the experimental data. For a low strain rate, the predictions of this model are more precise than thos e obtained using the improved Cowper-Symonds model. This confirms that the new constitutive model is suitable for describing the me-chanical behavior of PET material at a low strain rate and modeling impact problem.