Gov’t urged to defer flour duties

The antidumping duties slapped on imported Turkish flour are not only expected to jack up prices of bread products by as much as 20 percent starting July, but may also cause the closure of some 100,000 small enterprises, the Philippine-Turkish Business Council warned Monday.

Ernesto Chua, chair of the Philippine-Turkish Business Council, said in a briefing that the additional duties, which would take effect anytime within the next two weeks, would affect millions of direct and indirect laborers, particularly those in the provinces where Turkish flour is largely used.

It was only last month that the Department of Agriculture announced a provisional anti-dumping duty on Turkish flour imports, on top of the existing 7-percent duty. A 35-percent antidumping duty will be imposed on hard flour and 35.21 percent on soft flour.

Chua said they were pushing at least for the delay in the implementation of the duties so as not to put the burden on the end-consumers.

Turkish flour is cheaper than locally milled flour. Hard flour from Turkey retails for P720 a 25-kilogram bag; P750-P820 a bag for flour coming from Vietnam and Indonesia, and P850 to P920 a bag for locally milled flour.