PHL mulls extending restriction on imported rice

The Philippine government is now mulling on whether or not to extend the qualitative restriction or QR on rice to protect the farm sector until the country attains self-sufficiency status. “The Philippines needs some form of protection as we are not yet self sufficient in palay production," Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala told reporters in an interview Monday. “Seeking its extension would require careful study. At the end of the day, with or without any law, rice imports would come into the Philippines, anyway. We need to prepare," said Alcala. The QR is essentially an import ban on the commodity, which the Philippines extended before the World Trade Organization from the July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2012. In exchange for the extension, the Philippines increased its minimum access volume (MAV) on rice to 350,000 metric tons (MT). The MAV is the amount an agriculture product may be imported at a customs duty lower than the duties charged against the volume of imported commodities outside the quota, according to the general provisions of Republic Act 8880 which protects local industries by imposing higher tariffs. “Under [the law] only rice has QR. We need to amend the law if the QR will not be extended," Agriculture Undersecretary Segfredo Serrano told reporters in a separate interview. Should the Philippines decide to remove the QR on rice, Congress would have to amend Republic Act 8178 or the Agricultural Tariffication Act. At present imported rice up to the MAV has a 40-percent duty, while the volume of rice outside that quota has a 50 percent duty. In extending the QR to 2012, the Philippines conducted bilateral negotiations with nine WTO members including the US, China, India, Egypt, Thailand, Canada, Australia, Pakistan, and Argentina. The Aquino administration intends to achieve rice self-sufficiency with a yearly output of 21 million MT by 2013. — VS/HS, GMANews.TV