Rice importers facing higher tariffs

The imposition of safeguard duty on rice imports is one of the measures that the DA is banking on to stabilize the supply and price of rice.

Some 2.4 million metric tons of rice have entered the country, which according to Secretary Dar, has gone beyond what is needed by the country.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has embarked on an inquiry that would lead to the imposition of higher general safeguard duties on rice imports to help rice farmers cope with the plummeting price of palay or unhusked rice.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar had earlier revealed that they will release by end of the month an order raising tariff duties on rice to 75 percent from the current 35 percent on imported rice from Southeast Asian countries and 100 percent from the current 50 percent from other countries.

“I have taken the necessary steps and the direction where we will enforce legal measures during these times when we have greatly exceeded the volume needed to fill up the slack in national rice supply, most particularly in Metro Manila and major urban rice consumption centers,” Dar said.

“We have started investigations and we expect to complete them by the end of September or early October. We have to holistically and systematically protect the consuming public and much more, our small farmers.”

The imposition of safeguard duty on rice imports is one of the measures that the DA is banking on to stabilize the supply and price of rice.

The measure is in line with Republic Act 8752 (Anti-Dumping Act of 1999), where the government can impose anti-dumping duties on imports of any product, including rice and other basic food items, that are priced way below the current fair market value.

Another option is to impose stringent sanitary and pytho-sanitary and inspection measures of rice imports.

The Philippine can only produce 93 percent of its total national rice requirements, the remaining seven percent is imported. To date, some 2.4 million metric tons of rice has entered the Philippine borders, which according to Dar, has gone beyond what is needed by the country.

“We will protect our small farmers by not allowing additional imports especially this main harvest season. We want them to benefit from the respectable farmgate prices of palay set by the government through the National Food Authority (NFA),” Dar underscored.

Based from the latest price monitoring of the Philippine Statistics Authority, the average farmgate prices of palay stood at P17.62 per kilogram as of the second week of August, lower than the P22.28 per kilo in the same period last year.

To address the declining prices of palay, DA two weeks ago flooded local markets with 3.6 million bags of rice imported by the NFA and increased the palay-buying price at P19 from the previous P17 per kilo.