Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan welcomes the government’s revisions on the prevailing tariff and minimum access volume for pork imports, stressing it was a victory of vigilance.
Pangilinan has raised the effects of African swine fever and massive pork importation in a Senate Resolution urging the declaration of a state of calamity to free up funds needed to respond to the ASF.
Last month, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order 128 that reduced the tariff rates on pork importation to bring down the price of pork.
An EO on increasing the MAV, the volume of a specific agricultural product that is allowed to be imported with a lower tariff as committed by the Philippines to the World Trade Organization, is also pending the President’s signature.
However local hog raisers insisted that over-reliance on pork importation would kill the local industry that suffered losses of P68 billion pdue to ASF.
Under the economic team’s revised proposal, instead of the 5 percent tariff under EO 128 for in-quota importation of pork, the rate would increase to 10 percent during the first three months, and 15 percent for the fourth to 12th month.
For pork imports outside of quota, tariff was to be increased to 20 percent from EO 128’s 15 percent for the first three months, and 25 percent for the fourth to 12th month.
Additionally, instead of increasing the current MAV of pork by 350,000 metric tons (MT) for a total of 404,000 MT, the DOF instead proposed to lower the addition to 200,000 MT for a total of 254,000 MT.
According to the economic team, this will bring down pork prices by 23.1 percent.
The local hog industry also supports Pangilinan’s call for a declaration of a State of Calamity, saying that the funds are badly needed in order for them to recover, protect unaffected areas, and freeze interest rates on hog raisers’ loans.
As of April 27, a resolution has already been cleared and is only pending approval of the President.