PriceSanond

DSI Investigates Phillip Morris

The Bangkok Post reported on 18 August that “[t]he Department of Special Investigation has decided to file charges against US tobacco firm Philip Morris Thailand for allegedly under-declaring the value of its products to evade taxes.”  The Bangkok Post also reports that Phillip Morris says: "its practices had been confirmed by a World Trade Organization (WTO) panel which ruled that the declared customs values were consistent with Thai law”.  The WTO Panel decision and WTO Appellate Body decision on this dispute have not received much press in Thailand, but they make for very interesting reading for anyone wanting to know the WTO's views on how certain aspects of the Thai tax regime work in practice.  A summary of the WTO's decision can be found on the WTO's website here.  For those who do not want to read the entire WTO summary, we provide excerpted quotes from the "Summary of the key findings" of the WTO Appellate Body's decision below:

  • "The Appellate Body upheld the Panel's finding that Thailand acts inconsistently with…GATT 1994 by subjecting imported cigarettes to internal taxes in excess of those applied to like domestic cigarettes."  
  • "The Appellate Body also upheld the Panel's finding that Thailand acts inconsistently with…GATT 1994 by according less favourable treatment to imported cigarettes than to like domestic cigarettes."  
  • "Finally, the Appellate Body upheld the Panel's finding that Thailand acts inconsistently with…GATT 1994 by failing to maintain or institute independent tribunals or procedures for the prompt review of customs guarantee decisions.  Thai Customs requires importers to provide a guarantee in order to obtain the release of goods from customs pending a final determination of customs value."  
  

 
     

At its meeting on 15 July 2011, the DSB adopted the Appellate Body report and the panel report, as modified by the Appellate Body report.