The Trade Department said it will submit a recommendation to the National Economic Development Authority to keep the current 5-percent tariff on imported mechanically-deboned meat until a full review of the tariff program is conducted.
“Neda has no objection to the retention of 5-percent tariff on MDM. The recommendation is to retain the 5 percent to prevent tariffs from reverting to 40 percent, until such time the proper tariffication value is assigned to each tariff line,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said Thursday after the monthly meeting of the National Price Coordinating Council.
Lopez said it would be prudent to keep the 5-percent tariff instead of increasing it to 40 percent only to be adjusted again after the review.
Meat processors and meat traders were opposing the proposed increase in tariff for MDM imports. Both groups claimed that MDM had become a very important raw material for large and small processors.
Industry estimates showed that independent meat processors outside the Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. were using about 30 percent to 35 percent of the total MDM imports, producing low cost food items such as siomai, lumpia shanghai, longanisa and other products patronized by low-income groups.
Meat importers alleged that any increase on the cost on MDM would impact consumption and nutrition, especially of the lower economic groups.
MDM and turkey items are not in direct competition with any locally produced products, the groups said.
Data showed that both the local pork and poultry industries had been growing steadily since 1996 when meat importation was liberalized.
MDM, a globally traded commodity, is not available in sufficient quantity in the Philippines.
Othel V. Campos
MDM imports reached 248 million metric tons at an average landed cost of $0.56 to $0.95 per kilogram in 2017.
Meat importers said a higher tariff on the product would result in less imports and higher production cost for processed meat and canned meat producers.
They said the reversion to 40-percent tariff would raise prices of canned goods by as much as P17 apiece.
