Farmers ask Senate to review PH performance under RCEP
A group of farmers called on the new Senate leadership to review the country’s trade performance during the first year of the country’s membership in the mega trade deal Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
In a statement, the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) expressed dismay on the moves by the economic managers to reduce tariffs on rice and other sensitive commodities. The group said this contradict their assurances during the RCEP Senate hearings that these products would not suffer any tariff reduction.
Recently, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto floated a proposal to cut rice tariffs from 35 percent to 17.5 percent, purportedly to lower rice prices.
“We call on Senate President Francis Escudero to immediately reorganize and convene its RCEP Oversight Committee. We need to know if the government lived up to its promises to the agricultural sector. Have the promised gains from RCEP materialized?”, said Raul Montemayor, FFF National Manager and member of the Bantay RCEP Coalition which was formed by civil society groups last May 2023 to monitor RCEP.
The FFF also challenged Congress to honor its commitment to significantly increase the budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
“A large part of the proposed increase in the DA’s 2025 budget is placed in Tier 2, where it will have to compete with proposals from all other government agencies. How the DA budget is finally configured will show whether the Senators were really serious in their commitments when they approved RCEP,” said Montemayor.
The RCEP is a consolidation of trade agreements between and among the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - which includes the Philippines - and China, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Senate Resolution No. 42 dated Feb. 21, 2023 ratified Philippine accession to RCEP. The agreement entered into force for the country on June 2, 2023.
Responding to concerns about the preparedness of Filipino farmers to compete against imports and take advantage of export opportunities, the Resolution included a list of government’s commitments to assist the agricultural sector. It also created an Oversight Committee to regularly monitor and review such commitments and their impact on farmers.
FFF noted that a scheduled meeting of the Committee last May 22 was cancelled following the change in Senate leadership and the resignation of Senator Loren Legarda as Oversight Committee head.