PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has directed the Department of Agriculture (DA) to remove non-tariff barriers to bring down rising domestic prices of agricultural products.
The directive was contained in Administrative Order 20, signed on behalf of the President by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on April 18.
"It is imperative to further streamline administrative procedures to foster transparency and predictability of policies on the importation of agricultural products in order to help ensure food security, maintain sufficient supply of agricultural goods in the domestic market, and improve local production," Marcos said in the AO.
Non-tariff barriers are policy measures, other than customs tariffs, that restrict trade, including but not limited to quotas, import licensing systems, regulations and red tape.
The President ordered the DA to simplify procedures and requirements in licensing importers, minimize the processing time of application for importation, and exempt licensed trades from submission of registration requirements in coordination with other agencies such as the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Finance.
He has also ordered the DA to facilitate the importation of certain agricultural products beyond the authorized Minimum Access Volume and reduce or remove administrative fees.
The DA must also ease the process of issuing Sanitary and Phytosanitary Import Clearance and find ways to improve logistics, transport, distribution and storage of imported agricultural products.
The Bureau of Customs (BoC) was directed to prioritize the unloading and releasing of imported agricultural products.
The DA, DTI, BoC, Philippine Competition Commission, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Justice, National Bureau of Investigation, and Philippine National Police will also form a surveillance team led by the DA to ensure the effective and efficient implementation of the circular.
The DA, DTI, DoF, BoC and the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) are to jointly submit a quarterly report on the status of the implementation of the AO to the President through the Office of the Executive Secretary and the Inter-Agency Committee on Inflation and Market Outlook (IAC-IMO).
The IAC-IMO, which was established through Executive Order 28 (series of 2023), is an advisory body of the Economic Development Group on measures that would keep inflation, particularly food and energy, within government targets. Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said AO 20 would make food cheaper.
"Right now, it's very difficult as an honest exporter to sell food to the Philippines," Salceda said in a statement on Sunday.
"The Philippines has among the highest rates of protection for its domestic goods, with a protection level of around 27 percent as a share of farm receipts across all agricultural goods. With such levels of trade protection, we should not be surprised why food is expensive in the country," he said. "Such protection levels also do not directly accrue to the agricultural sectors they are supposed to protect. They also incentivize those who can completely disregard the law or corner domestic trade."
If implemented fully by the DA, the circular "will open sugar imports to direct industrial users. That could end the stagnation of the food manufacturing sector. Right now, sugar prices in the Philippines are the highest in Asean," Salceda said.
The AO will "poke holes in speculative bubbles in the price of fish, which has high levels of non-tariff protection, such as the Certificate of Necessity to Import," he said.
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