WTO panel rules against Thailand on compliance

THAILAND has failed to comply with a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling against its regulations on cigarette imports, a WTO dispute panel in Geneva said on Monday.

The issue involved the first of two legal cases brought to the Geneva-based watchdog by the Philippines.

Either side can still appeal the ruling, which concerned valuation imported by Philip Morris Thailand Limited from Philip Morris subsidiaries in the Philippines and Indonesia.

The dispute stems from Manila’s 2008 complaint against Thai fiscal and customs measures affecting cigarettes from the Philippines, including customs valuation, excise tax, health tax, value added tax, retail licensing requirements and import guarantees imposed upon cigarette importers that resulted in unfair treatment of foreign brands.

The WTO dispute panel ruled in favor of the Philippines in late 2010.

In February 2013, however, Manila expressed concern on a lack of progress in Thailand’s compliance with rulings and recommendations of the dispute panel concerned, while Bangkok argued in June 2014 that Thailand did not have to take any further action to implement them.

The WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body formed a compliance panel — the second after the one formed in December 2016 — on May 9. —