Smuggled Turkish flour being investigated

Turkish flour (Photo: www.tfyi.gov.tr)

MANILA – The shipments of Turkish flour were being investigated after reports showed that they were brought into the country as Indian flour in order to evade payment of dumping duties, according to the Philippine Association of Flour Millers (Pafmil) yesterday.

Pafmil executive director Ric Pinca said that the incident was discovered when the Bureau of Customs (BOC) office in General Santos City saw a shipment that contains 1,800 bags of flour. Initially, the bags were claimed to have come from India, but in reality they were produced in Turkey.

Flour from India only has a tariff rate of 7 percent and is not subject to dumping duty, whereas Turkish flour face 2.87 to 16.19 percent dumping duties.

Pinca revealed that the company that imported the flour gave a lower value to the shipment. Moreover, the shipment violated the Fortification Law because the flour does not contain iron fortificant.

Also, the identification of the manufacturer was not declared.

Other smuggling activities might be happening in the Port of Manila and Manila International Container Terminal Port, Pinca noted. Thus, the BOC is currently putting flour items under “alert” status.