DA imposes provisional tariff on Turkish flour

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) has imposed provisional anti-dumping duties on Turkish flour, having found positive cases of dumping by importers.

“The Department of Agriculture found, after preliminary determination, an affirmative finding of dumping on the petition filed by PAFMIL for the imposition of anti-dumping duty against imported wheat flour originating from Turkey,” said the DA in an order published yesterday.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala signed the order last Monday, the order becomes and is effective 15 days from date of publication in two major newspapers.

To be imposed in addition to the seven percent regular import duty on flour is a provisional duty of 35 percent on hard flour used for making bread, 39.26 percent on biscuit bread, and 35.21 percent on soft flour which is used for pastries and cookies.

The provisional import duty would be imposed for four months while the Tariff Commission conducts a formal investigation to determine if a permanent anti-dumping duty should be imposed.

The period of investigation for the determination of dumping activities covered import transactions from Jan. 1 to Dec. 21, 2012

“However, for the injury determination, the period covered were for the years 2010-2013,” the order said.

The imposition of a provisional anti-dumping duty stemmed from a petition filed by the Philippine Association of Flour Millers Inc. (PAFMIL) claiming that local flour could not compete with Turkish flour which are sold in the country at dumping prices.

PAFMIL represents large local flour manufacturers RFM Corp., Liberty Flour Mills, Wellington Flour Mills, Universal Robina Corp., General Milling Corp., Philippine Four Mills and Pilmico Foods Corp.

Dumping occurs when a country exports a commodity at prices lower than its domestic prices.

As of November 2012, Turkish flour is sold in the Philippines at $348 per metric ton (MT) against a domestic price of $470 per MT.

Flour is sold to bakers at P700 to $750 per 25 kilogram bag against a price of P750 to P900 per 25 kg bag for locally-milled flour.

Indonesia, in 2012, also imposed a 20-percent safeguard duty on Turkish flour.

“The decision made by the DA to impose dumping duty on Turkish flour is pro-Filipino, pro-fair trade and pro-Philippine labor which is in danger of losing their livelihood to Turkish laborers producing flour products  dumped in the Philippines,” said PAFMIL in a statement yesterday.

“But we still have to work to get the dumping duty implemented, knowing fully well the situation at the Bureau of Customs,” PAFMIL added.