Filipino-Chinese businessmen expressed their full support to the proposed law seeking to lift rice import quantitative restrictions and replace them with tariffs.
The Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the measure would be a “much-needed reform” to ease the negative effects of inflation on the poorest of the poor.
The FFCCCII said in a letter to President Rodrigo Duterte the rice tariffication bill would benefit low-income families as the staple food accounts for a hefty part of their daily household expense.
“Rice is the staple food of our nation and it comprises almost 20 percent of the household expense of low-income households. We believe that by removing the import quotas on rice and replacing them with tariffs, the price of rice will significantly be lower as there will be competition, and the lack of available cheap rice will no longer be an issue,” FFCCCII president Domingo Yap said in a letter.
A copy of the letter was sent to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who said the import liberalization measure would help the government ease inflation.
The group said the rice tariffication bill would ensure that local farmers would benefit from the consumer-friendly measure through the creation of a Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund.
The fund will provide local farmers with assistance programs, loans, grants and aid needed to modernize rice farming.
“This measure is a much-needed reform that will help our countrymen,” the FFCCCII said ahead of the President’s expected signing into law of the rice tarrification bill.
Nine business organizations earlier signed a joint statement expressing their support for rice tariffication.
The joint statement was signed by the Management Association of the Philippines, American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Bankers Association of the Philippines, Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, Foundation for Economic Freedom, Judicial Reform Initiative, Makati Business Club, Philippine Investment Funds Association and the Semiconductor and Electronic Industries in the Philippines Inc.
“We, the undersigned business and professional organizations, hereby strongly support ongoing efforts and measures of the administration to liberalize the economy and thereby unleash its full potential to ensure sustainable, robust and inclusive economic growth, while ensuring a better quality of life for our people through affordable food,” the business groups said.
They said “consumers must be freed from food supply apprehension and provided with price stability at an affordable level. This measure will address those concerns through free and open competition.”
The bill, which was ratified by both the Senate and the House of Representatives in December last year, was transmitted by Congress to Malacañang Palace on Jan.15 for the signature and approval of President Duterte.
The business groups said that upon enactment, the rice tariffication law would help “harness the financial resources, management expertise, logistics support, and extensive nationwide distribution system of the private sector to ensure food security, particularly of the most important food staple”•rice.”
