MB exec bats for tariff reprieve in agriculture sector

MANILA, Philippines — There is a need to open up the Philippine market by lifting protectionist measures for the agriculture sector and finance product-enhancing initiatives, a member of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Monetary Board said.

Bruce Tolentino, a former undersecretary at the Department of Agriculture (DA), stressed the need to boost the competitiveness of the country’s agriculture sector through increased productivity.

“We need to break the tariffs down. We need to open up the market, bring down the protectionist measures, because that is the way in the short term by which we are going to achieve lower levels of inflation and to enable our people to get food at a competitive price. That is the short term. How about the long term?” he said.

Tolentino pointed out that the country’s agriculture sector is not competitive due to “very low levels of productivity.”

“Well, because for so long, our budgets have been oriented to subsidies and protection, rather than productivity increases. We have money to spend, but we should spend it on productivity, not price support,” he said.

Tolentino, also a former deputy director general of the Laguna-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), said price support is short-term and is not sustainable.

According to Tolentino, farmers in Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia are using technology from the Philippines.

“I know that for a fact, I used to serve at IRRI. We trained technicians from all over Asia and sent them abroad and they used the technology. In the Philippines, we did not use the technology. We rely on protection. But that protection supported by short-term subsidies is not sustainable,” he said.

Tolentino said “it’s high time that we put the money we have in productivity-enhancing measures to help the farmers and break down the barriers to help the consumers.”