Local flour millers will seek to extend the three-year definitive anti-dumping duty on wheat flour from Turkey on fears that “dumping” practices could resume once the punitive duty expires.
In a statement, Philippine Association of Flour Millers (PAFMIL) Executive Director Ric Pinca said local flour millers will file their appeal next month.
The Tariff Commission said the definitive anti-dumping duty on the importation of wheat flour from Turkiye is set to expire on October 27 this year and urged concerned parties to file a written request for an expiry review before the Secretary of Agriculture no later than six months prior to the termination date.
The anti-dumping penalty was imposed by the Philippine government on a number of Turkish flour millers that were found to have dumped wheat flour to the Philippines.
“PAFMIL is convinced that Turkey will return to its dumping practice should the anti-dumping duty be allowed to expire,” said Pinca.
Turkish flour importers, however, said they are no longer importing flour from Turkiye since the imposition of anti-dumping duty effectively make their importation expensive. Ernesto Chua, owner of Malabon Trading and one of the biggest Turkish flour traders before the anti-dumping was imposed, said “Nobody imports anymore.” He also observed that “It seems local millers no longer have a cartel because of too much cut throat competition pushing local prices down and imported flour no longer competitive.
But Pinca noted that recent developments have given Turkiye nearly unhampered access to low-cost Ukrainian wheat. Due to the Russia-Ukraine war, all Ukrainian wheat exports have to go through Turkey for inspection before proceeding to the importing countries. This provides Turkey an opportunity to export flour using cheap Ukrainian wheat.
The Philippines imports some 95 percent of its milling wheat from the United States. Other Philippine wheat sources are Canada and Australia.
This will be the third anti- dumping petition to be made by the local flour millers led by PAFMIL against Turkish flour millers. The first petition was in 2014 which the Philippine Tariff Commission (TC) approved a year later, and imposed a five-year anti-dumping duty against 17 Turkish flour millers with the punitive duties ranging from 2.87 percent to 16.9 percent. During that period (2008-2012) Turkish flour export to the Philippines soared by 938.9 percent and in 2012 captured nine percent of the local flour market.
The second petition was approved by the TC on September 2020, for three years. In its decision, the TC determined that “There is a high likelihood that termination of the anti-dumping duties will lead to the continuation or recurrence of dumping of wheat flour imported from the Republic of Turkey.”
The TC noted that “ The factors identified in the original investigation, which in totality led to the existence of a real and imminent threat to the domestic industry then, continue to exist at present “. Seventeen Turkish flour millers were slapped with anti- dumping duties of 2.87 percent to 29.57 percent. These dumping duties were on top of the seven percent MFN ( Most Favored Nations) import duties for non-ASEAN, and Australia-New Zealand with which the Philippines has multi-lateral trade agreements.
PAFMIL counts among its members seven of the country’s biggest and oldest flour millers – RFM Corporation, Wellington Flour Mills, Liberty Flour Mills, General Milling Corporation, Universal Robina Corporation, Philippine Flour Mills, and PILMICO Foods Corporation. Non-PAFMIL member mills supporting the anti-dumping petition are San Miguel Mills Inc., Philippine Foremost Milling Corporation, Morning Star Milling Corporation, Delta Milling Corporation, Atlantic Flour Mills and Mabuhay Interflour Mills Inc.