Thais still afoul of WTO ruling on imported PH cigarettes

Thailand has failed anew to provide the Philippines an explanation as to why it has not fully complied with the measures set by the World Trade Organization to compensate a local cigarette maker, two years after the decision was issued.

In its latest status report, the Thailand delegation to WTO only said that it has “continued to collect information from the relevant Thai agencies in response to the most recent set of questions received from the Philippines regarding aspects of Thailand’s implementation.”

“Thailand will inform the Philippines on a bilateral basis of the status of the responses to those questions. Thailand continues to hope that this process of the informal exchange of information will enable the parties to achieve a mutually satisfactory outcome to this dispute,” the Nov. 15 report further stated.

Trade officials had been anticipating Thailand’s report this month, as it may determine whether the Philippines would seek “forced compliance” from the Thais before the WTO or not. The explanation being sought concerned issues on the customs evaluation of the cigarettes Thailand had imported from the Philippines.

When asked if the Philippines will now pursue compliance proceedings, Trade Undersecretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. only said in a text message that they “did not file yet.”

Last month, Cristobal disclosed that if the Philippines is not satisfied with Thailand’s explanation, the country “will push through with the compliance proceedings.”

Compliance proceedings referred to the formal process under the WTO to seek the enforcement of a ruling. At present, the process that the Philippines has undertaken so far is a bilateral engagement.

The Philippines’ cigarette case with Thailand dates back in 2008. The Philippines then requested consultations, filed a dispute settlement case, and won the case. But Thailand, since the issuance of the WTO decision in 2011, has so far complied with only nine out of the 10 measures set out under the WTO ruling.

The decision by the WTO Appellate Body in 2011 had ruled with finality that Thailand was unfairly treating cigarette imports from the Philippines.