Customs urged not to release 1,000 container vans of rice

DAGUPAN CITY—Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) on Tuesday appealed to the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to stop auctioning off 1,000 container vans of smuggled rice that have been stored at the Port of Manila.

Rosendo So, Sinag president, said suspected smugglers had been “moving heaven and earth” to have the shipment released, but the BOC had refused.

The shipment containing 500,000 bags arrived in December last year but was confiscated because its importation was not licensed by the National Food Authority (NFA).

So said BOC should sell the rice stock instead to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

“If [the goods are] auctioned off, it would be the smugglers themselves who would likely bid [for the shipment], thus defeating the purpose of stopping the illegal trade,” he said.

The shipment would best serve the DSWD, which has been buying rice to give to survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” in the Visayas, So said.

“Our farmers have yet to recover from their losses because of recent typhoons. The government must step up its antismuggling efforts if it is serious in helping our farmers,” he added.

So also denied claims that the quantitative restriction (QR) on imported rice has already been abolished in 2012. “There are still ongoing negotiations to extend the QR,” So said. QRs ban the importation of rice without government permits.

The Department of Agriculture earlier sought an extension on the QR on rice importation in a bid to keep the 40-percent duty on grains entering the country under the Minimum Access Volume (MAV).

Under the World Trade Organization agreement, importations outside of the 350,000-metric ton MAV are levied a higher tariff of 50 percent.

With the QR in place, So said rice smugglers could not just bring in imported grains into the country and then seek permit upon the arrival of their shipment.

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala ruled that the QR is still being observed, thus making all shipments without the necessary permits illegal.

“All rice imports must have a permit from the NFA. If these arrive without an importation permit, these must be seized. If we allow this (importation without permit), the quantitative restriction will be useless. We have the QR because we want to restrict the entry of imported rice,” Alcala added.

More than 400,000 rice farmers in the Ilocos have agreed to contribute P1 each in the fight against smuggling. Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon