The Department of Agriculture (DA) assured Filipino consumers on Tuesday that the price and supply of holiday goods will be stable despite the more stringent trade measures it implemented recently.
Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol said he sees no disruption in supply despite the implementation of the two importation measures, which some traders deemed as unnecessary.
“In the first place, we did not stop importation. We are not telling people not to import,” Piñol told reporters in an interview on Monday.
“What we are saying is that [importers] would have to go through this process and we just want to check [their permits],” he added.
In a span of two weeks, Piñol imposed two measures as part of the agency’s efforts to curb technical smuggling. Last week Piñol ordered the “revalidation” of all import permits for agricultural goods, except for rice and corn, after receiving reports that many permits were being recycled and that smugglers are misdeclaring imported goods such as meat.
On Monday Piñol ordered the creation of the Agriculture and Fisheries Trade Facilitation Unit, which would inspect all inbound shipments of agricultural goods and food before the Bureau of Customs evaluates the tariffs for these imports.
Piñol noted that the DA has revalidated 2,375 sanitary phytosanitary import clearance certificates as of Saturday.
“You are only scared to undergo these processes if you are doing something wrong,” he said.
“There’s a leeway [in the re-validation process]. For example, your imports are chilled products we release them immediately because we know that these products will easily get spoiled on the basis that you will sign an affidavit of undertaking that you would submit the documents lacking as soon as possible,” Piñol added.
He said the new measures are not meant to harm importers. “For those who are saying we are doing this to extort money, we are not that cheap.”