PH plans to impose safeguard duties on Thailand’s products

The Philippines is preparing to impose safeguard duties on certain products from Thailand to pressure the fellow Southeast Asian country to cooperate on the decade-long issue on cigarette taxes.

Some 37 tariff lines from Thailand stand to lose concessions and may be subjected to higher duties, the Tariff Commission said Wednesday.

The TC said it would convene stakeholders for comments by the end of January to determine the level of safeguard tariffs to be slapped on each tariff line in the list.

The list includes maize; semi-milled or wholly-milled rice; soya bean oil and its fractions; mixed condiments and mixed seasoning; non-dairy creamer; white cement; lubricating oils; medicaments; monosodium glutamate; face or skin creams and lotions; hair preparations; dentrifices; polyethylene; plastic chemical derivatives of natural rubber; and plastic supplementary system of feeding for…