The Department of Agriculture (DA) has been formally asked by its legally mandated arm for stakeholders' participation, Philippine Council for Agriculture and Fisheries (PCAF), to withdraw its petition to lower import tariff rates on pork.
Instead, PCAF is proposing for the government to allow the importation of cheaper feed inputs so that local producers can produce cheaper feeds and lessen the production costs in swine.
PCAF, in its recent meeting with DA officials, adopted a resolution recommending the withdrawal of the petition from the Tariff Commission (TC) for temporary tariff reduction in rice and pork for a period of 12 months.
DA particularly wants pork imports under minimum access volume (MAV) to be slapped with lower tariff from the current 30 percent up to 5 percent in the first six months of the implementation of the proposal, and up to 10 percent in the succeeding six months.
For pork imports outside MAV, the recommendation is for the tariff to be reduced from the current 40 percent to 15 percent in the first six months and 20 percent in the next six months of the implementation of the temporary tariff reduction.
Aside from this proposal, the DA is also trying to get President Rodrigo Duterte’s approval to increase the MAV allocation for pork imports to 404,210 metric tons (MT) from the current 54,000 MT.
MAV refers to the volume of a specific agricultural product that is allowed to be imported with a lower tariff as committed by the Philippines to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The DA is pushing for all of these things as part of the measures to bring down the price of pork in the country amid the persistence of African Swine Fever (ASF).
As for rice, the DA also asked TC to reduce import tariffs on the main staple coming from non-ASEAN countries to only 35 percent from the current 50 percent.
PCAF, for its part, said the DA’s priority should be to increase local production of food as well as improve the local supply chain and mobilize local supply.
The DA should also push for food diversification and encourage consumers to consider other sources of protein in the meantime, while importation should only be an alternative source of supply to fill up the demand gap, the group added.
PCAF is claiming that DA didn’t consult its stakeholders enough before coming up with its importation-related proposals.
“The tariff reduction can facilitate price control among the traders and will stabilize the supply and prices, however, this scheme will have unintended and spillover effects affecting the incomes of producers who are mostly the backyard and commercial swine/hog raisers and the rice farmers,” said PCAF Presiding Officer Danilo Fausto.
“In such manner, the producers/farmers will be discouraged to produce more and is contrary to the promotion of DA programs for increased productivity in the long term,” he added.
Fausto, who also serves as president of the Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food, Inc. (PCAFI), further said the decreasing supply and high prices of pork should not be highlighted too much as there are other alternative sources of protein to fill up the demand, such as fish and vegetable products.
The animal feed industry, he said, is also proposing that the government instead should allow the importation of cheaper feed inputs to produce cheaper feeds and lessen the production costs in swine rather than reducing the tariffs on finished products, such as meat.
“Producing cheaper feeds can help minimize if not eradicate the use of swill among backyard swine raisers, which was one of the identified causes for African Swine Fever (ASF) infestation,” Fausto said.