Despite opposition from lawmakers and industry groups, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III on Tuesday reiterated his agency’s position to cut tariffs and raise the import ceilings for pork, stressing that both measures were needed to rein in inflation.
During the online Senate hearing, Dominguez said the proposed measures—as recommended by the Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Finance (DOF), and the National Economic and Development Authority—were studied and underwent four months of research and consultation.
He added that the current pork situation was an “emergency” that needed an immediate solution, the “most practical” of which was to encourage more pork imports by lowering the tariffs.
Data presented by the DOF showed that the lack of hog supply that led to higher pork prices resulted in 51.8-percent pork inflation. Pork prices also rose by 12 percent to 60 percent last year, prompting economic managers to push for the two proposals.
“Our temporary solution to the rise in pork prices is to bring in more supply … when pork prices are up, Filipino households suffer,” he said.
“While short-term, it will prevent a chain of events that could bring some long-term damage,” he added.
Economic managers have yet to secure the support of lawmakers to bring down pork tariff to a low of 5 percent from 40 percent, and raise the import ceiling for imports with lower tariffs—or those under the minimum access volume —to 404,210 metric tons (MT) from 54,000 MT over the next 12 months.
Dominguez said the foregone revenue of P13 billion from lower tariffs was a small trade-off compared to the additional P67 billion that consumers must pay for pork.
Nicanor Briones, vice president of Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines, said industry leaders were not opposed to the importation of pork given the supply shortfall, but said based on data from the Bureau of Customs, importers were already getting enough margins to bring in more pork without the said measures.
He said the government should allow pork importation at the current MAV and tariff levels first, noting that importers who were given permits had yet to fully use the allocations they got.