Turkish flour case brought to tariff body

Local flour millers called on the authorities as well as consumers to be on the lookout for smuggled Turkish flour, as the Department of Agriculture (DA) asked the Tariff Commission to further investigate allegations of dumping and decide on the need to impose a definitive duty.

The Philippine Association of Flour Millers (Pafmil) warned that since the DA imposed provisional dumping duties on Turkish flour last week in response to local industry concerns, unscrupulous importers may resort to technical smuggling to evade payment of the dumping duty on top of the 7 percent import duty and the 12 percent Value Added Tax.

“The Bureau of Customs should be on the look out for this,”

Pafmil executive director Ric M. Pinca said.

Technical smuggling, Pinca said, may come in the form of misdeclaration or misclassification, or declaring the flour as another item of lower or no import duty at all such as soybean meal, which may also come bagged in containers, just like Turkish flour. Another way is to declare a lower transaction value, so that lower duties would be imposed; or declaring lower tonnage of import, which would mean paying lower taxes than required.

DA spokesperson Undersecretary Emerson U. Palad said separately that, pursuant to RA 8752 or the Anti-Dumping Act of 1999, “the case has been transmitted to the Tariff Commission for formal investigation to determine whether or not there is a need to impose a definitive duty against wheat flour imported from Turkey.”

The export of a product at lower than its domestic selling price in the country of origin constitutes dumping. Its is prohibited by World Trade Organization (WTO) rules to which the Philippines, Turkey and Asean countries, among others, are signatories.