Agri stakeholders decry move to slash tariffs on pork, rice imports

Agricultural groups are crying foul over the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) proposal to reduce the tariff rates imposed on pork and rice imports, noting that doing so would put local producers on the losing end.

The DA’s move came as a surprise to industry leaders who said they only knew of the recommendation through a news report. The Inquirer on Friday reported that the agency has proposed tariff cuts to be implemented over the next 12 months as a means to depress high food prices.

“There was no consultation done by the DA on this issue and there has been undue haste in pushing this proposal,” Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) national chair Raul Montemayor said. “We vehemently oppose the proposal.”

FFF was especially alarmed by the need to lower tariff rates for rice as there has been no declaration from the agency of an impending rice shortage. Retail rice prices have also been on a downward trend since November for both regular milled and well-milled variants.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar had repeatedly claimed the country has more than enough food stocks except for pork, Montemayor noted.

“This came as a surprise to us … and to think that the DA sat on requests for the imposition of safeguard duties when palay prices were down and eventually thumbed down the proposal,” he said.

Livestock groups were also disappointed. In a phone interview, National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc. president Chester Warren Tan said lowering pork tariffs would rob local producers of tax revenues that could be used for hog repopulation efforts.

Estimates made by members of the private sector showed 5.5 million pigs were lost from the African swine fever since the Philippines reported its first case in September 2019.

This has not only drained local stocks, but the interests of hog raisers to reinvest in the sector also waned as more cases were reported.

“The purpose of tariffs is to generate funds. We need this badly for our swine repopulation program and most importantly, the construction of the first border inspection that has long been promised … reducing tariffs will not solve our problem. The government will lose a lot of money and we’ll be at the losing end,” he said.

Under the DA’s proposal, pork imports under the minimum access volume (MAV) would be slapped a 5-percent tariff for the next six months and a 10-percent tariff for the succeeding six months from the current rate of 30 percent.

For imports outside MAV, the DA wanted tariffs to be reduced to 15 percent for the next six months and 20 percent in the succeeding six months from the current 40 percent.

All rice imports, meanwhile, were to get a lower tariff of 35 percent from an in-quota and out-quota rate of 40 percent and 50 percent, respectively.

Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura chair Rosendo So said the agency should prioritize helping local producers first before accommodating requests from importers and traders to cut tariff rates.

Agriculture Undersecretary Cheryl Caballero, in a briefing on Friday, said the DA would be implementing a string of programs to perk up local pork production and squash the exorbitant prices in the market. She said importation was just one of these measures.

Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua also expressed support for the agency’s proposal.

“Our priority right now is to ensure that food supply is adequate so that households who have been affected by the COVID-19 and the quarantines will not be doubly affected by possible further spikes in inflation,” he said.

The Tariff Commission is set to hear the DA’s proposal on Thursday, Feb. 4.