Government urged to delay tariff cut on rice imports

MANILA, Philippines - Farmer groups and non-government organizations such as the Rice Watch and Action Network (R1) has urged the government not to reduce the import tariff rate on rice under the full implementation of the  ASEAN Free Trade Arrangement (AFTA).

The Philippine government is preparing to phase-in rice next year from the Highly Sensitive List (HSL) to the Inclusion List (IL) as agreed upon under the AFTA-Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT).

The various farmers groups and NGOs made a final appeal to the Government during a hearing yesterday of the Tariff Commission. They called for a moratorium on the inclusion of rice, saying the sector continues to face problems.

They said the government must be given more time to implement the FIELDS program which is supposed to make the Philippines self-sufficient in rice production by 2013.

“The government should establish a strong and competitive rice industry before opening up the local market to competing rice from the ASEAN countries. Let’s talk about the inclusion of rice in the AFTA-CEPT after the government has successfully achieved its rice self-sufficiency target by 2013,” Jessica Reyes-Cantos of RI said during the TC hearing.

Based on studies gathered by the NGOs, rice in Vietnam in 2003 was being sold at an a average of rice in Vietnam in 2003 was being sold at an average of P7.38 per kilo while the same commodity was selling at P8.09 in Thailand. In the same year, the average price of rice in the Philippines  was P18.30 per kilo.

In 2007, the price of rice in Vietnam was P13.57 per kilo and Thailand’s price was P14.08, while the price of rice in the Philippines was P22.59 per kilo.

During the rice crisis, last year, the price of rice per kilo in the Philippines was P29.81, P27.26 per kilo in Vietnam and P28.50 per kilo in Thailand.

The Department of Agriculture said the inclusion of rice under AFTA would result in more concessions for Filipino rice farmers who would benefit from higher export prices for their produce.

At present, rice farmers are reluctant to increase their production because of prevailing low buying price for paddy rice which is affected by the National Food Authority’s low buying/support price as the grains agency also tries to hold down the selling price of rice which is the Philippines’ politicized staple.