The recent recommendation of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to temporarily reduce tariffs on rice imports was described as “unwarranted and ill-timed” by a group of farmers.  
          

 Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) National Manager Raul Montemayor is questioning the basis for the DA's petition, given that DA Secretary William Dar had repeatedly said the country will have enough local rice production following a record harvest in 2020 despite the series of typhoons and calamities.
         

 “This sudden proposal of the DA is totally unjustified. It is a stab in the back of our rice farmers, who are still reeling from the drastic fall in farmgate prices caused by excessive imports in the last two years following the enactment of the Rice Tariffication Law.  Why encourage more and cheaper imports now when local supply is more than enough, and prices are very stable?” Montemayor further said.
          

The farmers noted that the DA even suspended the issuance of import clearances late last year to ease the glut in supplies after a surge in imports in the middle of the year.
          

To recall, last January 28, the DA asked the Tariff Commission to reduce tariffs on rice imported from non-ASEAN countries to only 35 percent from the current 50 percent.  
          

The Tariff Commission will conduct a hearing on February 4 to discuss the proposal.
Meanwhile, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) show that average retail prices for both well-milled rice (WMR) and regular-milled rice (RMR) in 2020 were 2.5 percent lower than 2019 levels.  
          

From July 2020, prices had shown a continuous downtrend and reached their lowest level of P40.75 per kilo for WMR and P36.09 per kilo for RMR in December 2020.  
          

The local price declines occurred despite the increase in international prices of rice, particularly those coming from Vietnam and Thailand, Montemayor noted.
         

 Montemayor said that imports from countries like India and Pakistan are still cheaper than comparable products from ASEAN countries like Vietnam and Thailand even if they are assessed a higher 50 percent tariff.  
          

He added that there is no guarantee that the reduced import costs for rice from non-ASEAN countries due to lower tariffs will translate into lower retail prices for consumers.
         

 “The DA proposal will only make the importers richer.  Those who will now import from India and Pakistan to avail of the lower prices and tariff are also the ones who used to import from Thailand and Vietnam.  They will sell the rice at the highest possible price and will not pass on most of the savings to consumers,” said Montemayor.
         

 He noted that the DA proposal to reduce rice tariffs was made with “zero” consultation with farmers and appears to have been surreptitiously inserted into the petition to reduce tariffs for pork products.
         

 Aside from rice, the DA also recommended a reduction in the tariff for pork imports under the minimum access volume (MAV), from 30 percent to 5 to 10 percent tariff.
        

 For pork imports outside MAV, the recommendation is for the tariff to be reduced to 15 to 20 percent from the current 40 percent.
         

This is to augment the supply of pork in the country, which has been severely affected by the continuous spread of the African Swine Fever (ASF).