Duterte admin to scrap rice import quota

The Duterte administration is set to remove the quota on rice importation. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Duterte administration plans to remove the quota on rice importation.

“Last week, the Cabinet decided to end the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice,” National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Director Reynaldo Cancio told an investor conference call late Thursday.

READ: Lifting of cap on rice imports pushed

A repeal of Republic Act (RA) No. 8178 or the Agricultural Tariffication Act of 1996, which had kept the QR on rice importation in place, should be pursued to scrap the quota.

In 2014, the World Trade Organization (WTO) allowed the Philippines to extend its QR on rice until 2017, in a bid to buy more time for local farmers to prepare for free trade in light of the government’s goal of achieving rice self-sufficiency.

READ: Rice self-sufficiency under Duterte ‘doable’

Since the government imposes a quota on rice imports, domestic prices are vulnerable to shocks resulting from meager supply.

The extended QR slaps 35-percent duty on imported rice under a minimum access volume (MAV) of 805,200 metric tons. Importations outside of the MAV limit are levied a higher tariff of 50 percent.

The Philippines’ most favored nation (MFN) rate—the additional tariff imposed when imported outside of Asean—on the commodity remains at about 40 percent./rga