Philippines Imposes Tariffs, New Regulations on Rice Imports
The Philippines recently lifted certain restrictions on rice imports and replaced them with tariffs, revoking specific requirements that forced traders to apply for licenses from the National Food Authority (NFA) and allowing the country’s president to change duty rates, according to an April 11 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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The changes, which were signed March 5, sharply reduce the role of the NFA in the country’s rice trade, eliminating the need for traders to have an NFA permit and only requiring that they have a “Sanitary and Phytosanitary Import Clearance from the Bureau of Plant Industry,” the notice said. Instead, there will now be a tariff-rate-quota for rice at 350,000 tons, according to the notice. The in-quota Most Favored Nation (MFN) rate will be 40 percent, USDA said, and the MFN tariff rate for out-quota imports will be 180 percent “or the tariff equivalent based on the [World Trade Organization] Agreement on Agriculture upon the expiration of the waiver of the special treatment for rice, whichever is higher.” The Association of Southeast Asian Nations will “be levied a uniform 35 percent duty” on in-quota and out-quota tariff rates, USDA said.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte can adjust existing duties and make “any necessary change in classification, provided Congress is not in session,” the notice said. USDA also said that a “special rice safeguard duty” may be imposed for the “industry’s protection from extreme or sudden price fluctuations.”