House leaders to Duterte: Reconsider decision to increase MAV for pork imports

MANILA, Philippines — House leaders, including Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, have appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to reconsider the recommendation to increase the quantity of pork that may be imported at lower tariffs to the country.

The House leaders’ call was contained in a letter of appeal transmitted  to the Office of the President on March 29, 2021, according to a statement sent by House committee on agriculture chairperson Mark Enverga.

The letter of appeal was sent by Velasco, Enverga, and House committee on trade and industry chairperson John Reynold Tiangco.

In the appeal, the House leaders cited the series of hearings jointly conducted by the House’s committee on agriculture and committee on trade and industry where the Department of Agriculture (DA) presented its proposal to increase the Minimum Access Volume (MAV) for pork by 350,000 metric tons and to reduce in-quota tariff from 30 percent to 5 percent for the first six months and ten percent for the succeeding six months.

“The members of the Committees are one with the livestock sector in expressing its opposition to the volume being requested by DA, as industry data and data provided by the Philippine Statistics Authority only showed a shortage of 150,275 metric tons,” the lawmakers said in a statement.

“Allowing importation beyond the shortage and with a lower tariff will cause oversupply not only in Luzon, but also in the Visayas and Mindanao where there is ample supply of pork,” they added.

The lawmakers said the two House committees submit to the plan of importing pork meat that is enough to fill the supply shortage but not with a lower tariff, as local hog producers already find it difficult to compete with the importers.

“The plan of lowering the tariff can be counterproductive and may have a negative impact on the local hog industry in the long term,” the lawmakers said.

“In view of the foregoing, the House respectfully appealed to the President that we import only the needed volume and that tariff on pork imports be retained at existing rates so as not to further injure our ailing local hog industry,” they added.

In March, Duterte recommended increasing the minimum amount of pork to be imported under the minimum access volume (MAV) to augment supply in the local market.

Duterte has endorsed increasing the MAV by 350,000 metric tons (MT), in addition to the current 54,210, according to presidential spokesman Harry Roque, in a letter to Congress.

JE