Agriculture Secretary William Dar (FILE PHOTO)
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 20) Agriculture Secretary William Dar assured on Monday the calibrated arrival of pork imports, as he announced that President Rodrigo Duterte s executive order lowering tariff rates for the meat products is already in effect.
Dar told lawmakers at a joint House hearing that the Bureau of Animal Industry is already issuing import permits in accordance with Executive Order 128. The EO 128 is now in effect and that continues to be implemented by us, he said during the hearing of the House committees on agriculture and food, and trade and industry. We would like to assure that the calibrated arrival of said imports will be properly managed and hoping that, yes, our ultimate goal is really that the imports will lower the prices of pork in the market, Dar added.
Senator Panfilo M. Lacson
(SENATE OF THE PHILIPPINES / FILE PHOTO)
Lacson pointed out that the demand for pork meat has gone down after the majority of hotels and restaurants in the National Capital Region (NCR) and other major cities in the country were forced to close since the government imposed strict lockdown measures to curb the pandemic in 2020.
Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua, however, argued that in using the per capita consumption, NEDA still believes that people “will not stop eating pork” and there was only a “shift of location” where they consume pork.
“So we used the P15 per kilo, per person, per year in demand estimate,” Chua told Lacson when asked about NEDA’s computation, at the Senate Committee of the Whole’s hearing on pork imports.
Published April 15, 2021, 1:49 PM
The proposal of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to increase the minimum access volume (MAV) of pork imports from 54,000 metric tons to 404,000 metric tons is consistent with supply deficit as estimated by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).
(Keith Bacongco / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Appearing before the Senate constituted as a Committee of the Whole undertaking a public hearing on food security issues, Thursday, April 15, NEDA chief Karl Chua assured senators that increasing the MAV and reducing tariffs in pork imports would not kill the hog industry.
Chua’s position meets head on a contrary stand of most senators led by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Senators Panfilo Lacson and Imee Marcos.
By ERWIN COLCOL, GMA News
Published April 8, 2021 12:26pm Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Thursday expressed alarm over the reduction of the tariff rates for imported pork meat to 5% to 20% from 30% to 40% for a year, which President Rodrigo Duterte allowed in a recent executive order (EO). In a message, Sotto tells reporters that local hog raisers will be utterly disappointed with the President s decision, not to mention the members of the Senate. That is bad news! The MAV (minimum access volume) could have been raised but not the lowering of tariff, he said. Under EO 128, the tariff rate for imported pork meat within quota or minimum access MAV whether fresh, chilled or frozen will be pegged at 5% for the first three months upon the EO’s effectivity and 10% for the fourth to 12 months.
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