ADVERTISEMENTREAD: Tariff cut on imported rice: A gamble local farmers won’t takeAlthough rice prices would not drop drastically due to increasing world prices, Balisacan said the new tariff rates on rice and other products would “benefit everyone.”“With the tariff reduction from 35 percent, everyone will benefit from that, and this is crucial because world prices are still increasing. If we don’t reduce the tariff, with the increasing world prices compounded by the 35-percent tariff over and above that, prices and inflation will remain to be a very serious problem. With this, we expect those upward pressures and rice prices to ease,” Balisacan noted. READ: More cuts to rice tariffs urged to tame inflationInflation rose to 3.8 percent in April, of which nearly half (1.75 percentage points) was due to rice, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed. “Reduced rice tariffs paved the way for more rice imports, and yet rice prices have only gone up,” Cainglet said in a Viber message.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer June 05, 2024 03:32 UTC