THE Department of Trade and Industry’s Consumer Protection arm (DTI-CPG) expects prices of processed-meat products to remain stable due to the executive order extending the 5-percent concessional tariff rate on mechanically deboned meat (MDM).
In a text message, Trade Undersecretary for Consumer Protection Teodoro C. Pascua said the extension on MDM, the raw material used in making processed meat, gives considerable leeway for prices on said products to remain at its current market levels.
“The extension on MDM tariffs gives some breathing spell for prices on canned products to remain at current levels,” Pascua reiterated.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has allowed the Philippines to implement the rice QR from its approval in 2012 to June 30 of this year.
As a concession, Manila had to lower the tariff on MDM to 5 percent, from 40 percent, for the duration of the extension.
In an earlier story by the BusinessMirror, Philippine Association of Meat Processors Inc. (Pampi) Executive Director Francisco J. Buencamino was quoted saying prices of their processed-meat products could spike by at least 12 percent. In the three-year reprieve granted by the extension of the executive order, Pascua advised the implementation of policies that would enable some measure of self-sufficiency in MDM.
In 1995 the Philippines, upon its accession to the WTO, was allowed to implement a rice QR for 10 years. Under the QR, rice imports within the minimum access volume (MAV) of 805,200 metric ton were slapped with an in-quota tariff of 35 percent, while all imports in excess of the MAV were assessed with a higher 50-percent tariff.
In 2004 Manila applied for a seven-year extension of the QR. The WTO approved the request two years later, subject to tariff concessions on certain agricultural products for member-countries.
Among those concessions was a reduction in tariffs for MDM and mechanically separate meat of poultry. After securing another extension of the rice QR in 2012, Manila retained prior concessions.
The government also had to grant new concessions, which include a reduction in tariffs for dairy products, oil-seed meals and frozen potatoes.