Local flour importers and Turkish exporters are mulling over plans to plead their case before the Philippines’ Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) as they hope to overturn a recent government decision imposing antidumping duties on wheat flour imported from Turkey.
Ernesto Chua, chair of the Philippine-Turkish Business Council, revealed in an interview Friday that this was one of the options being studied by affected parties after the Tariff Commission (TC) last week ordered the imposition of additional duties ranging from 2.87 percent to 16.19 percent for Turkish flour imports. The duties, which covered 13 Turkish exporters, will be implemented within a five-year period.
According to Chua, they were disappointed with the decision, as they expected the petition of the Philippine Association of Flour Millers (Pafmil) for additional duties to be dismissed. He claimed that the Turkish flour imports present no real threat nor material injury to locally milled flour, citing “high profits” and “lucrative margins” being reported by the flour milling companies, alongside various announcements of expansion plans.
“We will discuss with Turkish exporters what our next move should be. One of the options is to raise the matter before the CTA as provided by law,” Chua said.
But Chua noted that the 58-page TC decision was “an improvement” from the recommendation made by the Department of Agriculture in April this year. The agency at the time proposed the imposition of a provisional duty of 35 percent on hard flour, 39.26 percent on biscuit bread, and 35.21 percent on soft flour. These duties were to be imposed on top of the existing 7 percent import duty on flour.
In May last year, local flour millers claimed that Turkish traders were exporting flour to the Philippines “at dumping prices, which is in violation of the World Trade Organization rules,” hurting the local industry.