President Rodrigo Duterte has signed an executive order (EO) maintaining the existing import duty on certain poultry products and extending the validity period of the low import rate until December 31, 2020 in order to control inflation.
EO 82 series of 2019, which was signed on June 13 and issued on June 17, maintains the most-favored nation (MFN) rates for mechanically deboned meat (MDM) of chicken and turkey, and turkey and its offals under EO 23, which was issued in 2017. EO 82 also extends the validity of rates for six more months to December 31, 2020 from June 20, 2020.
Rates of duty for mechanically deboned or separated meat will still be 5% while frozen poultry is still 20%.
The EO noted that maintaining tariff rates under EO 23 was recommended by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board, adding that “present economic condition warrants the continued application of the reduced rate of duties on certain agricultural products to mitigate the impact of high prices of goods.”
Section 1608 of Republic Act No. 10863, or the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, authorizes the President of the Philippines, upon the recommendation of NEDA, to increase, reduce, or remove existing rates of import duty. Section 1609 of the same law also notes that the President, from time to time, may modify import duties to expand the foreign market of Philippine products as a means of assisting in economic development.
Under EO 82, which took effect immediately, all articles that are covered and are entered into or withdrawn from warehouses in the Philippines for consumption shall be levied the MFN rates of duty as prescribed in the order.
Philippine meat processors earlier called on the government to maintain the lower tariff rates on MDM, which is a key raw material in food production, to prevent an increase in the prices of processed meat products like hotdogs.
