Biz groups, foreign chambers back rice tariffication

MANILA, Philippines — More business groups and foreign chambers are pushing the enactment of a law seeking to impose tariffs on rice imports in lieu of quantitative restrictions (QRs) and sending their expressions of support to Malacañang for this consumer-friendly measure.

Finance assistant secretary Antonio Joselito Lambino said several organizations have forwarded a copy of their joint statement expressing their support for the rice tariffication bill to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez.

“Consumers must be freed from food supply apprehension and provided with price stability at an affordable level. This measure will address those concerns through free and open competition,” they said in their joint statement.

The joint statement was signed by the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham), Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP), Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX), Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEF), Judicial Reform Initiative (JRI), Makati Business Club (MBC), Philippine Investment Funds Association (PIFA), and the Semiconductor and Electronic Industries in the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI).

“We, the undersigned business and professional organizations, hereby strongly support ongoing efforts and measures of the administration to liberalize the economy and thereby unleash its full potential to ensure sustainable, robust and inclusive economic growth, while ensuring better quality of life for our people through affordable food,” they said in their statement.

The groups cited the need to balance the interest of both producers and consumers.

“One key measure of this effort is the rice tariffication bill approved by both Houses of Congress. This bill is intended to decisively and quickly address the rice supply disruption problem and concomitant high prices experienced last year to the detriment of consumers,” they added.

The bill, which was ratified by both the Senate and the House of Representatives in December last year, was transmitted by the Congress to Malacañang last Jan.15 for the signature and approval of President Duterte.

The President, who has certified the bill as urgent last year, can opt to sign the enrolled bill or allow it to lapse into law 30 days after its submission by the Legislature, as provided under the Constitution.

In their joint statement, the business groups said that upon enactment, the rice tariffication law would help “harness the financial resources, management expertise, logistics support, and extensive nationwide distribution system of the private sector to ensure food security, particularly of the most important food staple – rice.”

They also made it clear that rice farmers would be protected from unfair competition through the imposition of a 35 percent import tariff on imported rice.

Led by Dominguez, the Duterte administration’s economic team has long called for the liberalization of rice imports by replacing QRs with tariffs through amendments to the Agricultural Tariffication Act.

The move would help reduce price prices by P2 to P7 per kilo and further ease the impact of food supply issues on inflation. The contribution of rice to inflation multiplied 10 times to one percentage point when inflation surged to 6.7 percent in September and October last year.

The full year contribution of rice to inflation was 0.57 percentage points in 2018 as inflation accelerated to 5.2 percent from 2.9 percent in 2017.