TARIFFICATION LAW‘No choice but to invest in rice industry’home/News/Top Stories/‘No choice but to invest in rice industry’(Second of three parts)Last year, Sen. Cynthia Villar said the liberalization of rice imports was required by the World Trade Organization and resistance to it could result in trade sanctions for the Philippines, leaving the country with no other choice but to abolish quotas and pass the rice tarrification bill. RCEF will be funded by collections from tariffs slapped on rice imports, with at least P10 billion allocated annually from this year to 2024. That range brings it closer to Thailand’s average palay production cost of P8.86 per kilo but still far from Vietnam’s P6.22 per kilo. He said only 5 percent of world rice production was traded internationally and challenges like growing population and extreme weather disturbances could affect even the top exporters of rice, reducing available worldwide stocks of the staple. We need to increase the productivity, sustainability and competitiveness of our rice industry,” he said.

Source: Manila Times April 09, 2019 16:07 UTC