NEDA nixes additional tariffs on rice imports
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) firmly opposes the proposal of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to impose additional duties on imported rice.
“We are against it,” said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA chief Ernesto Pernia in a text message yesterday ahead of the meeting of the Cabinet’s Economic Development Cluster (EDC).
Last month, the DA announced it had been considering the imposition of safeguard duties on imported rice as early as October as prices of unmilled rice fell to a neardecade low amid oversupply due to strong importation.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar said there is a need to arrest the influx of foreign rice ahead of the main harvest season.
He noted that the country currently produces 93 percent of its rice requirements and therefore needs to import only the remaining seven percent.
The DA also raised the possibility of doubling tariffs on imported rice to give farmers respite from falling palay prices.
By raising tariffs, imports will become more expensive, forcing local traders to dispose of their stocks and buy again from farmers at higher prices.
The agency, however, backtracked on these plans, with Dar saying recently that these will first be throughly discussed by the EDC.
He said the plan would have to be discussed first during the meeting of the multiagency EDC chaired by the Department of Finance.
Agriculture groups have also been calling for the imposition of higher tariffs on rice as palay prices continue to fall.
The Rice Tariffication Act amends the two-decade-old Agricultural Tariffication Act of 1996 and replaces the quantitative restrictions (QR) on rice imports with a 35 percent tariff.
Under the new import regime, legitimate rice traders can import rice from various sources without permit from the National Food Authority (NFA), provided they secure a sanitary and phytosanitary imThe port clearance from the Bureau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and pay the appropriate tariff to the Bureau of Customs.
The law, which has been languishing in the legislative mill for years, was hurriedly passed early this year to drive down rising inflation.
Pernia had said the new tariffication regime for the staple should be given the chance to run its course until the market “normalizes.”