27/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - Philippines appeal against WTO decision against country over spirits import regime. On 23 September, Manila notified the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of its decision to appeal against the panel's report on complaints from the EU (DS 396) and US (DS 403) against the Philippine distilled spirits import regime. In the middle of last August, the DSB said that this system was discriminatory. Following the failure of their consultations with Manila in autumn 2009, the EU and the US lodged a complaint in Geneva in December 2009 and March 2009 respectively, against the taxes imposed by the Philippines on imported spirits. The EU and the US accuse the country of imposing taxes that are between 10 and 50 times higher than those applied to spirits produced in the archipelago. A special DSB group was set up to tackle these two cases. (EH/transl.fl)