Meat importers welcome proposal to scrap minimum access volume

MANILA, Philippines — Meat importers are backing  the proposal to scrap the minimum access volume (MAV) for chicken and pork as this will open up imports.

“Scrapping the MAV means opening up the importation. We will welcome it,”  Meat Importers and Traders Association (MITA) president Jess Cham told The STAR.

In a letter to Senate Committee on Agriculture chair Sen. Cynthia Villar dated March 18, the United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA) sought the scrapping  of the MAV for pork and chicken as exporting countries no longer need any assurance due to already low originating prices of agricultural products.

Cham said the abolition of the MAV system would lead to a more liberalized and open importation system as there would be less restrictions, except for Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) clearance concerns.

He noted that producers could strive to become globally competitive without need of tariff protection.

The MAV or tariff rate quota is a privilege enjoyed by importers under the Agreement on Agriculture (AOA). It is a concession granted by the Philippines to the members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), assuring agricultural exporters that there is a minimum volume which they can export to a particular country at a lower tariff rate.

Citing 2020 importation data, UBRA pointed out  that total chicken imports reached 402.7 million kilos,  already 17 times the MAV for chicken of 24.49 million kilos.

In addition, total pork importation was five times the MAV of 56 million kilos at 256 million kilos.

“It is obvious that the exporting countries no longer have any need of assurance as the prices of these products are very low originating as they are from countries with heavily subsidized agricultural systems,” UBRA said.

UBRA emphasized that there is certainly no need for a MAV for chicken as under the schedule of commitments in the AOA, the tariff rate became equal at 40 percent for inside and outside MAV in 2005.

“By definition, therefore, there is no longer a MAV for chicken. It is just there at the insistence of the Department of Agriculture,” UBRA said.

“The fastest way to get rid of corruption, therefore, is to abolish the MAV for chicken and pork as it should no longer exist in the first place,” UBRA said.

While MITA welcomes the proposal to abolish the MAV, Cham said the system, which was established in 1996, has worked very well until now.

“There have been no controversies. The players respect the rules. It is transparent and equitable. Corruption is not an issue,”he said.

UBRA expressed support for Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s recent resolution to look into the implementation of the MAV for pork and chicken.

“We support the resolution’s thrust to inquire into alleged anomalies in the implementation of our MAV commitments in the World Trade Organization. However, we seek not to reform, but rather abolish it,” the group said.

Last week, Lacson bared reports of a certain “tongpats” system operating within the DA, in which certain officials are collecting P5 to P7 per kilogram in kickbacks on imported pork.

Lacson said that with the alleged system in place under the current MAV of 54,000 metric tons, it is likely that the kickbacks received by the said officials would also increase if the proposal to increase the MAV to 400,000 MT pushes through.

Under the proposal to increase tariffs for in-quota or those within the MAV, a five percent tariff is proposed for the first three months and will be increased to 10 percent afterwards.

Current imports under MAV, which is at 54,000 metric tons, are slapped with a 30 percent tariff. For those outside MAV, a proposal of 15 percent tariff is initially eyed before hiking to 20 percent.

At present, out-quota imports are levied at 40 percent. The proposal covers meat of swine, fresh, chilled or frozen.