DA to impose ‘safeguards duty’ on rice imports

As farmgate prices of palay has plunged, the Department of Agriculture has decided to impose a general “safeguards duty” on rice imports to prevent flooding the market as the harvest season approaches.

“We have to holistically and systematically protect the consuming public and much more, our small farmers,” Agriculture Secretary William Dar said.

“So, I have taken the necessary steps and the direction where we will enforce legal measures during these times when we have greatly exceeded the volume needed to fill up the slack in national rice supply, most particularly in Metro Manila and major urban rice consumption centers,” he added.

Dar said that investigations regarding the matter are ongoing and are expected to be completed by the end of September or early October.

The safeguards duty is in line with the Republic Act 8752 or the Anti-Dumping Act of 1999.

Under the law, the government may impose duties on any imported product that is priced way below fair market value.

The department is also looking at the possibility of tempering rice importations by implementing stringent sanitary and pytho-sanitary and inspection measures.

The Philippines imports 7% of its national rice requirements, according to the DA.

To date, 2.4 million metric tons of rice that has been imported has already exceeded the country’s requirement.

Earlier this year, President Rodrigo Duterte enacted the Rice Tariffication Law which liberalized rice importation.

Quantitative restrictions on rice imports have been removed and a 35% was set for shipments from Southeast Asia.

After the law was implemented, local farmers cried for help as palay prices plunged to as low as P7 per kilo in August.

“We will protect our small farmers by not allowing additional imports especially this main harvest season. We want them to benefit from the respectable farmgate prices of palay set by the government through the National Food Authority,” Dar said. —Dona Magsino/VDS, GMA News