DA stands by position against lifting of QR on rice importations
The Department of Agriculture (DA) has kept its stand against the lifting of quantitative restrictions (QR) on rice, believing that the removal of the trade barriers on the staple food would only temporarily make rice cheaper.
This was stressed by Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol in the agency's official position paper on the said issue, which will serve as a guide for the Senate for making any legislative action on the matter.
The QRs are limits to the volume of goods traded by a country. QR on rice, for instance, protects local farmers from foreign rice imports by imposing a high 35-percent tariff rate on them after hitting certain shipment limit.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) granted the Philippines with an initial exemption from the lifting of QR on rice because of its highly sensitive nature.
The deadline for the country's QR has already been extended twice, with the second extension expiring in July of next year.
As the deadline approaches, different government agencies have expressed their conflicting views on the matter.
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), for one, got the support of the Department of Finance (DOF), in believing that the country should no longer ask for another QR extension, while the DA, without backing from any other agencies, stand firmly against it.
"While certain quarters have called for the tariffication of the QR, the Department of Agriculture is of the position that it should be extended for at least another two years to allow this Administration’s support programs to firmly take root and set the sector on the proper path of sustained self-sufficiency at competitive levels," Piñol said.
"We also see the supposed benefits of full liberalization such as cheaper rice for all consumers as temporary. With many Filipino farmers flocking to the urban areas to find other means of livelihood and those who are unable to compete with cheaper imported rice shifting to other jobs, domestic rice production will drop and the country will be increasingly dependent on rice imports," he added.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, however, maintained the position of NEDA against the extension, while DOF said the lifting of the QR will bring more investments to rice and prevent corruption.
It was in September last year when Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, who was replaced by Pernia, said QR on rice imports is “very anti-poor.”
He said that although the QR gives protection to the farmers, its overall cost on the economy has been so high, especially among the poor because that has led to a double-digit inflation for rice when overall inflation was only two percent to five percent.
Balisacan said imposing a tariff of 30 percent to 40 percent would be enough to protect farmers from imported rice that would come into the country.
Having the less favored stand, Piñol said that "whether the rice QR is extended or allowed to expire, the Department of Agriculture is determined to support the rice sector as the cornerstone of the country’s food security policy."
But he also maintained that "exposing the sector, particularly the small rice farmers, to unbridled international competition from heavily subsidized exporters will cost the country huge social and economic consequences."
"As the vast majority of our small rice farmers whose average cost of palay production per kilo is about R12.00, they would lose motivation to remain tilling the fields and competing with foreign farmers such as the Vietnamese whose average cost of palay production per kilo is approximately half at R6.00," the DA chief specified.