To shield domestic livestock producers from market disruption caused by foreign supply spikes, the Department of Agriculture has activated special safeguard duties on select imported meat products. Issued under Department Order No. 24, series of 2026, by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., the directive establishes temporary protective tariffs after government monitoring confirmed that incoming import volumes crossed official safety thresholds.
The volume-based duty serves as an emergency trade mechanism anchored in the country’s Safeguard Measures Act and international commitments under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Agriculture. Under this statutory framework, the Agriculture Secretary can enact special safeguard duties immediately once import volumes exceed established trigger levels, bypassing the lengthy investigation processes typically required for trade remedies. The Bureau of Customs will calculate and collect the additional duties, which remain in effect through the end of the calendar year unless modified or terminated earlier.
The order applies to specific meat imports that recently surpassed allowable volume limits. Affected commodities include fresh or chilled boneless beef, retail-packaged canned chicken curry, and several categories of processed swine products. The list encompasses non-airtight prepared or preserved pork, hams, and offal, as well as both airtight and non-airtight luncheon meats.
This decisive policy action follows trade tracking by the agency’s Trade Remedies Office under the Policy Research Service, which documented that actual import volumes for these key agricultural products had breached their respective trigger baselines. By exercising its legal authority to adjust tariffs in real time, the government seeks to prevent price suppression in local markets and cushion domestic agricultural sectors against sudden influxes of foreign goods.
