Duterte retracts order to suspend rice importation
Credit to Author: Eireene Jairee Gomez| Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2019 11:49:47 +0000
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte retracted his day-old order to suspend the importation of rice, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said on Thursday.
In a press conference in Quezon City, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said he explained to the Executive during a meeting on Wednesday night the various solutions that have been put in place by the DA to assist rice farmers confronted with the continued drop in palay (unmilled rice) prices as a result of the implementation of Rice Tariffication Law.
“We discussed the guidelines. We understand that the President is really looking at all angles and this is the directive — strictly implement the guidelines that we have elevated in regard to the issuance of SPS (sanitary and phytosanitary) import clearance,” Dar said.
Dar said the strict enforcement in issuing SPS IC may help lessen rice imports and put in place food safety control measures for milled rice that could be used to prevent or eliminate food safety hazards or reduce them to an acceptable level.
“[N]ung wala tayong guidelines for stricter implementation, ang average [imports] ng March to September was 250,000 [metric tons], more or less. When that was done, the arrivals in October were only 85,000 MT,” Dar said.
(When we had no guidelines, our average imports from March to September was 250,000 MT, more or less.)
But the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF), one of the strongest lobby groups in the country’s rice sector, had warned the DA that arbitrarily imposing SPS measures to limit imports may expose the country to disputes or challenges in the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The DA initiated an investigation in early September this year to determine the necessity of imposing safeguard duties on rice imports. But the economic managers thumbed down the measure due to its inflationary impact.
Duterte on Tuesday night directed the DA to suspend the importation of rice because it was the harvest season for local rice. EIREENE JAIREE GOMEZ