The Committee on Tariff and Related Matters, chaired by the Trade and Agriculture Departments, proposed supply-side interventions to minimize the impact of inflation and reduce the prices of agricultural commodities.
“Based on the report of Tariff Commission, modifying the tariff rates will not have a significant impact on the prices of agricultural products because many of these have relatively lower tariff base already or would have landed costs lower than local prices. After consulting with various stakeholders as well as the current status of tariff rates, there’ll be minimum movement if we bring the tariff to 5 percent. So, this would not be the solution. Instead, we focus on supply-oriented actions and volume enhancements that would have an immediate impact,” said Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez.
Government agencies, in a tariff and related matters meeting on Aug. 15, tried to come up with potential solutions to reduce inflation.
The committee found that the reduction on most favored nation rates would not significantly reduce prices as the agricultural products were already being sourced from Free Trade Agreement partners under lower preferential rates.
“We need to focus our efforts in finding realistic and practical solutions to lower the prices while balancing the interests of both consumers and producers,” Lopez said.