• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
An alliance of sugar farmers have sounded alarm over the administrative order issued by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., which enjoins government agencies to remove non-tariff barriers to bring down rising domestic prices of agricultural products.
It will threaten to flood the country with excessive volumes of food imports, the Sugar Council said in a statement.
It is composed of three sugar farmers’ federations, including the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP), Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations Inc. (Confed) and Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers Inc. (Panayfed).
Non-tariff barriers are policy measures, other than customs tariffs, that restrict trade, including but not limited to quotas, import licensing systems, regulations and red tape.
In a position paper addressed to the President, the Sugar Council expressed concern that removing non-tariff barriers will result to import liberalization, leading to the death of local agricultural production at a time when most countries in the world are experiencing food supply shortage.
It said that the removal of the Sugar Regulatory Administration’s (SRA) existing importation rules and regulations, including its say on relevant fees and charges, would constitute a loss of SRA’s regulatory authority and revenues, and will undermine the agency’s wherewithal to fund programs that directly help sugarcane farmers.
In Administrative Order (AO) 20 issued on April 18, among the agencies enjoined are the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department of Agriculture (DA), particularly its attached agencies, the National Food Authority (NFA) and the SRA.
Marcos ordered the DA to simplify procedures and requirements in licensing importers, minimize the processing time of application for importation, and exempt licensed trades from submission of registration requirements in coordination with other agencies such as the DTI and the Department of Finance.
“It is imperative to further streamline administrative procedures to foster transparency and predictability of policies on the importation of agricultural products in order to help ensure food security, maintain sufficient supply of agricultural goods,” the President said.
The Sugar Council warned that “while agreeing with the need to reduce red tape and further streamline importation procedures to help stabilize prices of basic necessities, without “appropriate safety nets and effective competitiveness enhancement measures”, AO 20 cannot “ensure food security, maintain sufficient supply of agricultural products in the domestic market, and improve local production”.
It added that AO 20 “could undercut the ability of the SRA to deliver on its mandate under Executive Order No. 18, Series of 1986, which is “to establish and maintain such balanced relation between production and requirement of sugar and such marketing conditions as will ensure stabilized prices at a level reasonably profitable to the producers and fair to consumers.”
The Sugar Council also reiterated the call for a sugar importation program “anchored on the principles of transparency, inclusiveness, and timely and accurate data analysis in order to be properly calibrated in terms of volume and timing”. | GB
