go through Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Josen, Senior Reporter
Milan, Italy – The government is willing to adopt a seasonal tariff plan to better protect farmers.
“Yes, we need to study it. What I'm going to say is that if there is no operation or even legal barrier, I'd prefer it. Because that way, we can stabilize the income and prices of farmers that farmers get.” BusinessWorld Watching the Asian Development Bank Annual Meeting here last week.
This is in the case of a proposal by the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) to implement taxes, which is strategic, i.e., in a high degree of conflict with the harvest season. Seasonal tariffs also mean variables rather than fixed tariffs.
Since July last year, the government has cut tariffs on rice imports by 15% from 35% to 2028 to tame prices.
Mr Balisacan said the government would need to look at how seasonal tariffs were implemented, adding that these tariffs were once the main tools of the EU and the United States before the World Trade Organization (WTO).
“Now, we have to figure out how you navigate, because who is paying attention to the WTO at this time? Everyone is changing tariffs everywhere, so we have to find a way to look at this.”
He added that seasonal tariffs would protect farmers from volatile prices.
“What you actually have to do is build the prices you want farmers to face. Then, when the world prices fall, you raise the tariffs to keep the prices. When the world prices rise sharply, you lower the tariffs. In other words, you can stabilize the prices that farmers face. So that's good,” Mr. Balisacan said.
Rice inflation has been on a downward trend after the government has taken several measures to tame the retail price of staple foods over the past few months.
In addition to lower tariffs, it announced a rice food security emergency in February, which allowed the release of buffer stocks. The Ministry of Agriculture will also recommend the highest retail price for earlier this year.
In April, rice inflation fell by 10.9% from 7.7% in March.
According to the Philippine Bureau of Statistics, the average price of a kilogram of conventional rice nationwide fell 13.3% year-on-year to P44.45 in April. The average price of mimi fell 10.4% to P50.54, while the special rice fell 6.2% to P60.69.
Still, farmers’ groups say rice prices are still rising in most local markets.
Mr Balisacan said the Commission on Tariffs and Related Matters (CTRM) was already reviewing the proposal to implement seasonal taxation.
“From there, they will recommend it to the CTRM Cabinet and then elevate it to the Commission on Economic and Development, which was formerly the National Bureau of Economic and Development.”
Farmer groups such as FFF and Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura also recommended reducing the rice tariff to 35%.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture (DA) said it could also consider seasonal tariffs before further research.
“Conceptually, we accepted the idea and we were willing to think about many ideas,” ASIS G. Perez, deputy minister of agriculture, told ASIS G. Perez, told BusinessWorld On the sidelines of the same event. “But we have to find ways to implement and ensure that, because when you do it at a seasonal level, it can sometimes lead to uncertainty and unpredictability.”
“As for the concept itself, we can accept the idea as proposed. As always, DA is like this. We won't close an idea.”
Mr Perez said their policies must be aimed at “eliminating the unpredictability of food supply that affects prices”.
He added: “It's to ensure consistency, predictability, and I think it's a key element of a strong food supply system. Not only for rice, but for all other products, for all others, for all others.”
DA said in January that it expects this year's PALAY or non-rice rice harvest to exceed 20 million tons (MT). In 2024, Paya output fell to a four-year low of 19.09 million tons, a decrease of 4.84% from the previous year.
Rice imports could fall 1.9% to 5.2 million tons this year, according to the USDA. In 2024, Rice imports reached a record 4.7 million tons.
