The advent of the Internet appears to have changed the thought process of some government officials. Doing things on the fly—a trait that is common among heavy users of social media—has become the norm. Nowhere is this more evident than in the way the government is handling the massive shift in the country’s rice policy.
In a few weeks, the Philippines will soon remove a measure that has allowed the government to prevent the influx of cheap rice imports. Dubbed “quantitative restriction,” the nontariff barrier has been in place for 23 years. Among all agricultural products, rice enjoyed protection for more than two decades.
The protection will soon be gone after the bicameral conference committee approved the rice tariffication bill. President Duterte is expected to sign the measure into law soon. Removing the barrier this year was one of the commitments of the Philippines to the World Trade Organization and has been promised by the President. Economic managers pushed hard for the nontariff barrier, which made rice more expensive in recent years.
Measures to help farmers cope with the lifting of the QR, however, would be rolled out after the law takes effect. The government is keeping its fingers crossed in the hope that cheap imports will not enter the country right after the removal of the nontariff barrier. One of the President’s economic managers said that there would be a lag in the effect of the shift in the country’s policy so rice prices will not go down immediately. The lag is just a temporary reprieve and the government is practically leaving the fate of rice farmers to chance.
Initiatives that would cushion the impact of the scrapping of the QR should have been put in place even before the government firmed up its decision to do away with it. We are not sure if the government is aware of the serious effect of the shift in rice policy, considering that 2.4 million rice farmers and their families are in danger of losing their livelihood as a consequence. Many experts have projected a steep decline in farm-gate prices of palay once traders step up their import activities.
Compounding the farmers’ problem is the uncertainty in the role of the National Food Authority (NFA) once the QR is lifted because the bicam-approved bill has removed its licensing power. It also remains to be seen whether the so-called Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund will serve its intended purpose. The bill includes a provision to set up this fund, which will consist of all tariffs collected from imports. On paper, as with all other state-sponsored programs, the RCEF looks good. How the government will ensure that the funds will not be channeled to other initiatives is another matter.
Previous administrations wasted more than two decades as they failed to prepare the rice sector for stiff competition while the QR was in place. As time has become the biggest challenge to prepare the sector for the massive shift, we hope that the safeguards instituted in the bill will be enough to shield 2.4 million farmers from the potential harmful effects brought about by the influx of cheap rice imports.