MANILA has formally notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) of its amended rules on rice importation that seeks to limit the entry of the staple by weeding out unscrupulous and dummy players through stringent registration requirements.
The Philippines submitted a notification to the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures on December 11, informing the body that it has implemented revised requirements for registration and renewal of importers of rice.
In its notification, the Philippines submitted Department of Agriculture (DA) Memorandum Order 28 which institutionalizes additional requirements for interested rice importers in a bid to remove unscrupulous players.
The order also requires importers to ship out their rice consignments from the country of origin within the prescribed date in their approved sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPS-IC).
The rice imports should also arrive not later than 60 days from the indicated “must ship out” date in their SPS-IC. The DA’s order last November 11 strengthened the current registration procedures for importers of rice and also prescribed a validity period for SPS-IC issued to eligible traders.
“There is a need to strengthen registration procedures for importers of planting materials and plant products, and specify the validity of the sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance, to safeguard from entry, establishment and spread of exotic plant pests and comply with food safety requirements,” the DA said in the MO.
The MO clarified certain provisions of Republic Act 11203, or the rice trade liberalization law, pertaining to the deadline on the arrival of imported rice in the country.
Tighter rules vs dummies
Under the MO, first-time rice importers and those renewing their registration are required to comply with the additional requirements that seek to determine their market capacity.
For initial registration and renewal of importers, they are now required to submit a proof of existence and authority to use warehouses that include proof of ownership, physical sketch and GPS of the exact location of the warehouse, 5R pictures of the warehouse with a dated newspaper and distributed areas of the imported rice.
Furthermore, rice importers are now also required to submit their annual income tax return with audited financial statement of the last three years. In a press briefing on November 21, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar pointed out that the additional rules are aimed at unmasking and weeding out unscrupulous players in the rice trade, particularly farmer cooperatives acting as dummies for bigger firms.
Aside from additional registration requirements, the DA has also implemented other nontariff measures to limit rice imports in the country, such as compliance with the government’s more stringent measures covering heavy metal content, pesticide residue, filth contaminants and microbial presence. (See “PHL to curb rice imports via nontariff measures,” November 22, 2019). The DA chief cited the BusinessMirror’s stories about “dummy” cooperatives edging out legitimate traders in rice imports as among the reasons for their decision to go after these groups (See “Farmer groups ‘top rice importers’—are they?” in the BusinessMirror, November 21, 2019, and “Pre- and post-rice trade liberalization law, big traders gaming farmer groups,” in the BusinessMirror, October 31, 2019).