Moving to ensure transparent allocation among pork traders when the upward adjustment in the minimum access volume (MAV) has been finally fixed, Sen. Imee Marcos prodded the Duterte administration’s economic managers to “consider auctioning pork imports.”
From where she sits as chairman of the Senate Committee on Economic Affairs, Marcos maintains public auction of pork imports will “help dispel suspicion that the impending increase in the MAV would only result in the issuance of import permits to favored meat traders eyeing to take advantage of a supply shortage while African swine fever (ASF) continue to afflict local hog raisers.
The senator affirmed that auctioning pork imports will “add a measure of transparency and accountability” that can discourage rent-seekers, anticipating that the Duterte government would even “derive additional revenue from issuing these import permits.”
Moreover, Marcos projects the Philippines can ensure its obligations to the World Trade Organization are met by crafting “very well-delineated auction IRR [implementing rules and regulations], so that the de facto duty does not exceed the bound rate.”
She, however, recalled that while both the executive and legislative branches of government decided to strike a compromise on MAV and tariff levels, “both are expected to drive a hard bargain,” after last week’s hearing of the Committee of the Whole.
“The truth is we are at an awful impasse,” Marcos admitted, praying that “may the Holy Spirit descend upon us all and inspire a solution,” even as she acknowledged that “an excessive increase in pork imports would kill the local swine industry before the ASF crisis could be resolved.”
This, even as the senator noted a “great disparity” in computations of lawmakers and government agencies, adding she herself was proposing to increase the MAV only in the fourth month after pork tariffs have been lowered to not less than 10 percent and 20 percent for imports inside and outside the MAV.
At the same time, Marcos recalled that based on consultations with local hog raisers, the MAV should be increased to only 150,000 metric tons in the fourth to 12th month after the increase in MAV and reduction in tariffs implemented, then reach a maximum of only 204,000 MT a year after.