NINE major business organizations pressed President Rodrigo R. Duterte to sign legislation on his desk liberalizing rice imports and imposing a series of tariffs on imported rice, as a means to ensure food is affordable for most of the population.
Citing the need to “balance the interests of both producers and consumers,” the business groups backed the legislation’s aim of allowing the private sector to import rice produced cheaply elsewhere in Southeast Asia at a 35% tariff, and relegating the National Food Authority (NFA) to procuring rice from domestic farmers to maintain a buffer stock.
The measure is expected to slash rice retail prices by P7 per kilogram and inflation by 0.7 percentage points. The Senate passed its version on third and final reading in November, while the House of Representatives approved its version of the bill in August.
The associations signing their name to the statement, as released by the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), included the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham), the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP), the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX), the Foundation For Economic Freedom (FEF), the Judicial Reform Initiative (JRI), the Makati Business Club (MBC), the Philippine Investment Funds Association (PIFA) and the Semiconductor And Electronics Industries in the Philippines, Inc. (SEIPI).
“We, the undersigned business and professional organizations, hereby strongly support ongoing efforts and measures of the administration to liberalize the economy and thereby unleash its full potential to ensure sustainable, robust and inclusive economic growth, while ensuring better quality of life for our people through affordable food,” they said in a statement.
Disruptions to the rice supply, among other factors, helped inflation peak at 6.7% for two months in late 2018, with poor consumers who depend on subsidized NFA rice having little choice but to buy rice from commercial sources.
“We urge the President to sign (the measure) into law. Upon enactment, the financial resources, management expertise, logistics support and extensive nationwide distribution system of the private sector will be harnessed to ensure food security, particularly of the most important food stable – rice,” they said.
The organizations called for “the sustained provision of essential support services and facilities – irrigation, better seedlings, modern growing and efficient harvesting technology, safe agricultural chemicals and post-harvest facilities — by the government to further assist the farm sector to be more productive and increase rural income.”
