Ph presses Thailand on WTO tobacco ruling
Credit to Author: Anna Leah E. Gonzales| Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2019 16:13:14 +0000
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez is eyeing to meet with his Thailand counterpart this month in a last-ditch effort to persuade the latter to comply with the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling on its customs measures on cigarette exports from the Philippines.
“We will find time to settle [the trade dispute] once and for all,” Lopez said in an interview.
The WTO in July 2019 ruled in favor of the Philippines’ claim that Thailand violated the policies on valuation for cigarette shipments.
The long-term dispute stemmed from the Philippines’ allegation that Thailand has been consistently failing to adhere to WTO’s Customs Valuation Agreement (CVA) when declaring cigarette exports.
WTO mandates that customs value of imported goods be measured at transaction value or the “price actually paid or payable for the goods when sold for export to the country of importation.”
The Philippines has raised concerns about “under-declaration” by Thailand of the customs value of cigarette exports.
The concerned cigarette shipments were imported by Philip Morris Thailand Ltd. from its Philippine and Indonesian subsidiaries.
Thailand’s action, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), earlier said, was seen to be harming the Philippine tobacco farmers, private sectors of both countries, export interests and bilateral relations.
In 2010, a WTO panel and the Appellate Body ruled that Thailand violated the CVA and other WTO rules. Thailand was also found to be non-compliant of the new customs valuation measures by WTO in November last year.
Lopez said the DTI in December wrote a letter to Thailand “enjoining them to implement the WTO ruling” and that the Philippines will be constraint to take action if the latter continues to ignore the ruling.
The Trade department earlier disclosed that they are looking at imposing tariffs on imported vehicles from Thailand as a retaliatory measure on the trade dispute.
“We formalized it already. We sent [the letter}. We will talk first. We will go through the process in the WTO. This is already a WTO ruling so they have no right to complain,” Lopez said.