The chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture said the lower chamber remains committed to approve a bill amending Republic Act (RA) 8178 to abolish the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice before Congress goes on its Lenten break next month.
House Committee on Agriculture and Food Chairman Jose T. Panganiban Jr. of Anac-IP said the Duterte administration, particularly the Department of Finance, wants the bill to be enacted by March 23 or before Congress’s break on March 21.
Panganiban told the BusinessMirror that the QR bill is under deliberation in the House Committee on Appropriations. “The passage of the bill requires no appropriation but it still has to be submitted to the House Committee on Appropriations as part of the process.”
“Initially, our schedule to hear the bill [at the appropriation committee] is February 27, but I am asking the committee chairman, Rep. [Karlo Alexei B.] Nograles [of the First District of Davao City] to prioritize the bill and pass it immediately,” he added. After the Appropriations Committee approves it, Panganiban said he expects the bill to be at the plenary level by early-March. The Senate has already committed to pass its version of the measure by March.
Also, after approving their respective versions of the QR bill, the Senate and the House of Representatives will transmit their bills to bicameral conference committee to consolidate their versions and to discuss the divergent provisions of the measure.
The passage of the law allowing the tariffication of rice is included in the priority bills identified as urgent by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council. It is also one of the priority measures of Congress.
The measure was supposed to be approved before the Congress’s Christmas break last December 13 as committed by Panganiban. But lawmakers had to prioritize the passage of the proposed P3.7-trillion national budget for 2018 and the tax-reform program.
The House Committee on Agriculture and Food has set a bound tariff rate of 180 percent for rice imports outside the minimum access volume (MAV). Under the bill, the Philippines will impose a bound tariff rate of 35 percent for rice originating from the Asean region, regardless of its volume. Manila would also impose a 40-percent bound tariff most-favored nation (MFN) rate for in-quota rice imports from countries that do not belong to the Asean.
Once the substitute bill is enacted into law, the country’s MAV for rice shall revert to its 2012 level of 350,000 metric tons (MT), from the current 805,200 MT.
Earlier, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia told the BusinessMirror that the President’s economic team would like Congress to pass the law scrapping the QR by the end of the year so the country can start imposing rice tariffs by the first quarter of 2018. The authority to set bound tariffs is vested in Congress. But, under the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, the President, upon the recommendation of the National Economic and Development Authority, has the power to modify the tariffs applied on Philippine imports.
The Philippines is under pressure toconvert its QR on rice into ordinary customs duties after its waiver on the special treatment on rice expired on June 30. The Wold Trade Organization (WTO) General Council approved the waiver, which allowed Manila to keep its rice QR until June 30, on the condition that the Philippines will subject its rice imports to ordinary custom duties by July 1.
Last March the Philippines informed WTO members that it is facing delays in converting the QR because it has not amended RA 8178, which imposed the import caps on rice indefinitely. As a sign of “goodwill” to its trading partners, President Duterte signed Executive Order 23 last July to extend the concessions made by the Philippines in securing the waiver in 2014.