The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF), acknowledged as the country’s largest and most effective group of rural farmers, fears the inquiry into the proposal to reduce the tariff on rice is nothing more than a sham show.
This relates to the scheduled Tariff Commission (TC) hearing this Friday that in the minds of FFF members is a mere formality designed to make it appear that stakeholders are being consulted on the proposal.
The scheduled online hearing will tackle the proposal advanced by the Foundation for Economic Freedom slashing the rice tariff from 35 percent to only 10 percent.
According to the FFF, the proposal will likely be adopted even though stakeholders consider the proposal ill-timed since farmers are about to harvest the crop and prices naturally trend down on their own.
“Encouraging additional imports through tariff reduction will further depress palay prices and discourage farmers from expanding future production, thereby making the country even more dependent on imports,” Raul Montemayor, FFF national manager, said in a statement.
Montemayor also said a tariff cut will not benefit consumers most of whom are poor, particularly because 85 percent of imports are premium grade rice.
“The authority to adjust tariffs is constitutionally vested in Congress. This power can be delegated to the President only during extraordinary situations. The economic managers are abusing this privilege by waiting for Congress to recess on 30 September so they can ask the President to cut the tariff through an executive order,” Montemayor said.
In a separate development, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Wednesday said the Philippines may delay importing the commodity as traders wait for more favorable prices.
The FFF said this outlook is accurate, saying the importers have adopted a “wait-and-see attitude because of uncertainty over government policy and movement in international prices.”
According to the FFF, there is a need to import a large volume next year as domestic production is not meeting demand.
Data from the Bureau of Plant Industry, as much as 2.33 million metric tons of imported rice arrived on 7 September, the bulk of which, or 2.09 million metric tons, were from Vietnam.
In August the USDA reported rice prices in Vietnam rising by $31 to $643 per ton.
DA monitoring of public markets in the National Capital Region show the price of local well-milled rice selling from P45 to P49 per kilo and the regular milled variety selling from P41 to P45 per kilo.
The price of imported well milled rice also sell for P45 per kilo but the price of imported regular milled was not available.
Imported special rice sell from P53 to P65 per kilo and for P53 to P58 per kilo for premium.
Special local rice sell from P54 to P62 per kilo and premium for P50 to P60 per kilo.
