MANILA – After months of delay, President Rodrigo Duterte finally signed a measure that will allow unimpeded importation of rice in the country.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo confirmed on Friday evening the signing of the measure which would have lapsed into law had the chief executive not acted on the bill forwarded to him by Congress.
The measure will amend Republic Act 8178, or the Agricultural Tariffication Act, by lifting quantitative restrictions on rice imports.
The new law will allow unlimited importation of rice from neighbors in Southeast Asia as long as private sector traders secure a phytosanitary permit from the Bureau of Plant Industry and pay the 35-percent tariff for shipments.
For non-ASEAN member-states, the tariff is at 50 percent or the tariff equivalent calculated in accordance with the World Trade Organization agreement on agriculture upon the expiration of the waiver relating to the special treatment for rice of the Philippines, whichever is higher.
The law allocates P10 billion for the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, of which P5 billion will be allotted to farm mechanization and P3 billion to seedlings.
Duterte has certified the bill as urgent last October saying there was a need “to address the urgent need to improve availability of rice in the country, to prevent artificial rice shortage, reduce the prices of rice in the market, and curtail the prevalence of corruption and cartel domination in the rice industry.”/PN
