DTI monitors Thai compliance to WTO ruling

The Department of Trade and Industry will continue to closely monitor Thailand’s compliance to a ruling issued by the World Trade Organization three years ago concerning taxes imposed on imported cigarettes.

“We are vigilantly monitoring developments to ensure that Philippine export interest is not negatively affected, and that the gains from (WTO) ruling would remain secure for the benefit of the exporters,” Trade Assistant Secretary Ceferino Rodolfo said Friday.

Rodolfo explained that as far as the Philippines was concerned, Thailand had not yet fully complied with the WTO ruling, despite the latter’s claims, due to the pending case against officials of Philip Morris Thailand for the alleged under-declaration of the value of cigarette imports from the Philippines between 2003 and 2007.

“We’re still monitoring what their (Thailand’s) next actions will be before we set bilateral talks. But the outcome of that case will be critical. We need to make sure that no Philippine exports will be negatively affected. We need to ensure that Thailand’s decision on the case will be compliant to the WTO ruling… It is prudent for us to safeguard what we have gained,” he stressed.

It can be recalled that the WTO Appellate Body had ruled with finality that Thailand was unfairly treating cigarette imports from the Philippines between August 2006 and September 2007. Amy R. Remo