Advocates at the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) has claimed the government decision extending the tariff cut on rice, corn and meat products for another year will only penalize local producers.
Executive Order 50 signed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on 22 December this year was ostensibly meant to mitigate the effects of the ongoing El Niño weather disruptions and the spread of African swine fever on domestic production.
Under the EO, the most favored nation (MFN) tariff cut on rice, corn and pork is extended further by a full year to end-2024.
As a result, the MFN duty rate on fresh, chilled or frozen pork for in-quota shipments stand at 15 percent and 25 percent for out-quota shipments until the end of 2024.
EO 50 also kept the tariff of in-quota and out-quota rice to 35 percent and corn tariff to 5 percent for in-quota and to 15 percent for out-quota until the end of 2024.
The SINAG has asserted local producers have nothing to do with the spiraling cost of staple food items, particularly rice.
“Extreme weather conditions and global pandemic are the new normal that have prodded the rest of the world to be food self-reliant. Even Singapore, the poster boy of food imports, has been pursuing a food self-reliant economy,” the group said in a statement.
SINAG said most countries responded by increasing domesticl production and supporting local producers.
“Here, it is the reverse. Local producers are penalized and importers are rewarded and pampered with four straight years of reduced tariff on rice, pork, corn and chicken,” the group complained.
SINAG argued that reliance on global markets has proven ineffective in reducing the cost of rice, pork and corn.
“Worse, we’ve lost billions in foregone revenue, further crippling the capacity of government to provide public support to the agriculture sector. Countries that have relied on their own capacity to produce food have not been impacted by any new developments in the global market,” the SINAG said.
