Farmers call for safeguard duties on imported rice

FARMERS said the government needs to initiate a safeguard duties investigation into foreign rice producers, claiming that domestic cultivators have suffered losses amounting to P43 billion due to unfair competition from imported rice.

- Andre Christopher H. Alampay

Raul Montemayor, national manager of the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF), said freezes on rice imports and hikes on rice import tariffs need to be supplemented by a formal safeguard duties investigation.

"By itself, the import ban will not prop up palay prices significantly, because traders anticipate that cheap imports will flood the market again when the ban is lifted in November," Mr. Montemayor said in a petition to the Department of Agriculture (DA).

In his petition, he urged the government to use its authority under Republic Act (RA) 8800, or the Safeguard Measures Act. RA 8800 allows industries that claim to be unfairly disadvantaged by foreign competition to propose the imposition of safeguard duties against their foreign competitors.