Importers want pork tariff rate at 15% until 2025

Despite a 12-month tariff cut imposed on pork, a group of local meat importers began lobbying for a much longer period wherein the pork import tariff rate is kept at 15 percent from the original 40 percent.

In a letter to Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Meat Importers and Traders Association (MITA) President Jesus Cham said the compromise pork import tariff rate of 15 percent is “reasonable” but it should “be incorporated into the upcoming tariff schedule and remain in effect until end-2025”.

Citing the projection of the local hog sector, which was badly hit by the African Swine Fever (ASF), Cham said it will take two to seven years before local hog production can bounce back.

Thus, he said it may take time for prices to ease and that the entry of more pork imports will be beneficial to consumers.

To recall, there is now a government order to temporarily cut the import tariff for fresh, chilled, or frozen pork.

Issued in April, the Executive Order (EO) 128 reduced the pork import tariff rate under the minimum access volume (MAV) to 5 percent from 30 percent during the first three months of the order’s implementation.

The MAV tariff rate will be increased to 10 percent in the next nine months, and will return to 30 percent towards the end of the EO’s implementation.

For pork imports outside MAV, the tariff rate will be cut to 15 percent from 40 percent for the first three months of the EO’s implementation. The rate will be raised to 20 percent in the next nine months before it will return to 40 percent after a year.

Cham argued that “the Philippines has a large backyard industry that has not progressed significantly despite decades of tariff protection”.

“Bio-security is practically non-existent because the producers have underinvested and lack the necessary training,” Cham said.

“From the onset, the hog sector was in denial and intent on pushing a protectionist agenda to keep out imports. They kept assuring the country and DA [Department of Agriculture] that there were ample pork supplies. It was only in January this year that the hog sector… “faced up to reality,” he added.

MITA’s letter was also forwarded to DA, Department of Finance, Department of Trade and Industry, National Economic and Development Authority, among others.

Nicanor Briones, vice president of Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines Inc. (ProPork), said for his part that MITA’s proposal will further damage the local hog sector, especially small backyard raisers, which already incurred billions of losses due to ASF.