Resolution vs sugar liberalization lauded

SUGAR industry players have commended 24 members of the House of Representatives for their commitment to support the industry after they signed on Wednesday a resolution expressing their strong opposition to the proposed liberalization of sugar imports.

In a statement on Friday, Raymond Montinola, national spokesman of the Confederation of Sugar Producers (Confed), said the industry was hoping that House Resolution 412, along with sugar champions in the Senate, would deter economic managers “to continue pursuing this line” and eventually junk the proposal to liberalize sugar imports.

“We [at] Confed have never been prouder of our champions in the House of Representatives for feeling the sentiments of the sugar producers, including millions of others, who in one way or another, are dependent on the sugar industry for their day-to- day needs,” he added.

“We have been harping on this since the Department of Finance (DoF) issued the pronouncements that they will once again pursue sugar liberalization as this is disastrous to the industry.”

The Philippine Sugar Millers Association (PSMA) also welcomed the resolution, saying the removal of quantitative restrictions on sugar imports would be detrimental to farmers and communities in the country’s 28 sugar-producing provinces.

Their comments came after the DoF proposed the liberalization in a recent economic bulletin, citing challenges to the country’s food-and-beverage manufacturing sectors caused by the high prices of sugar, as well as high effective protection rate of the basic food processing input.

“Reforms are needed to introduce competition in the sugar industry. Quantitative restrictions need to be replaced by tariffs and safeguard measures (for subsidized products) to allow for more transparent, competitive pricing and allow downstream industries to become more viable and grow as fast as their [Southeast Asian] counterparts,” said Finance Undersecretary and chief economist Gil Beltran.

He explained that for the past eight years, quantitative restrictions imposed on sugar imports raised the wholesale price of refined sugar to 235.8 percent above the export price of Thailand and 393.2 percent above the reported prices by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Beltran said consumers and downstream industries had been paying more than twice or thrice, using FAO prices, the global price for the commodity.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd had said domestic sugar prices were double the world market price, affecting the competitiveness of the food processing industry.

Montinola said any importation program needed to be under the direct supervision of the Sugar Regulatory Authority for a calibrated, timely and transparent import program.

“At the moment we cannot compete with world prices. World market is primarily a dumped market,” he added.