Marcos suspends rice importation for 60 days

President Marcos has ordered the 60-day suspension of rice importation starting Sept. 1, Malacañang announced yesterday.

- By HELEN FLORES

The move aims "to protect local farmers reeling from low palay prices during this current harvest season," Presidential Communications Secretary Dave Gomez said.

Marcos' directive came after he met with some Cabinet members on Tuesday on the sidelines of his state visit to India, and upon the recommendation of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. Gomez and Tiu Laurel are part of Marcos' delegation in his state visit from Aug. 4 to 8.

Citing reports, the Department of Agriculture (DA) earlier said that with cheaper imports flooding the market, some private traders are now buying palay (unmilled rice) for as low as P8 to P10 per kilo, well below the production cost of P12 to P14 per kilo.

Farmers have attributed this sharp decline to the influx of cheaper imported rice, the DA noted.

Higher rice tariff not discussed Meanwhile, Gomez said the proposal to increase the imported rice tariff was not tackled during the meeting.

"The President said it is not yet time to discuss tariff increases on imported rice," Gomez said.

"We will still see if we need to resort to that. Right now, the decision is to suspend all rice importation for 60 days beginning Sept. 1. That's the directive of the President to help our rice farmers," he added.

Tiu Laurel earlier said the DA would push to increase the current 15 percent tariff on imported rice during the third periodic review.

He said a tariff increase would help lift prevailing palay farmgate prices, especially since the next harvest season is a few months away. Several industry groups have pushed to revert the rice tariff to its original rate of 35 percent to drive up palay farmgate prices.

Tiu Laurel said the DA supports a gradual increase in the rice tariff rate to prevent possible market shocks.