An industry group said Thursday it will file a request for the extension of the three-year anti-dumping duties on imported wheat flour from Turkey.
The government imposed anti-dumping duties on Turkish flour imports after an inquiry found that Turkish exporters were selling the products at dump prices in the Philippines. The duties will expire on Oct. 27, 2023.
The Philippine Association of Flour Millers said it would file the request next month with the Tariff Commission on the assumption that Turkey would return to its dumping practice, if the anti-dumping duties would be allowed to expire.
It said that based on global developments, Turkey has nearly unhampered access to low-cost Ukrainian wheat. It said that because of the Russia-Ukraine war, all Ukrainian wheat exports had to go through Turkey for inspection before proceeding to the importing countries. This provides Turkey an opportunity to export flour using cheap Ukrainian wheat, according to PAFMIL.
The new petition will be the third anti-dumping petition requested by the local flour millers against Turkish flour millers. The first petition was in 2014 which the TC approved a year later.
The TC recommended five-year anti-dumping duties on 17 Turkish flour millers with the punitive duties ranging from 2.87 percent to 16.9 percent. From 2008 to 2012, Turkish flour exports to the Philippines soared by 938.9 percent and in 2012 captured 9 percent of the local flour market.
The second petition, approved by the TC in September 2020, extended the duties until 2023.
The TC said in its decision, “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.”
It recognized the existence of a real and imminent threat to the domestic industry that continues to exist at present. Seventeen Turkish flour millers were told to observe and pay anti- dumping duties of 2.87 percent to 29.57 percent.
The anti-dumping duties were on top of the 7 percent most favored nations import duties for non-ASEAN and Australia-New Zealand with which the Philippines has multilateral trade agreements.
PAFMIL counts among its members seven of the country’s biggest and oldest flour millers—RFM Corp., Wellington Flour Mills, Liberty Flour Mills, General Milling Corp., Universal Robina Corp., Philippine Flour Mills and PILMICO Foods Corp.
Non-PAFMIL member mills supporting the anti-dumping petition are San Miguel Mills Inc., Philippine Foremost Milling Corp., Morning Star Milling Corp., Delta Milling Corp., Atlantic Flour Mills and Mabuhay Interflour Mills Inc.
The Philippines imports about 95 percent of its milling wheat from the United States. Other Philippine wheat sources are Canada and Australia.