THE Philippines is resorting to “quiet diplomacy” in its bid to gain support for and retain a protection on rice traded under the World Trade Organization (WTO), which is set to expire next year.
National Food Authority (NFA) Administrator Angelito T. Banayo, who chairs a technical working group focused on negotiations for the quantitative restriction (QR) on rice, said this was the consensus among Philippine officials involved in efforts to retain the protection.
“We had a teleconference and that was the consensus—to pursue quiet diplomacy,” Banayo said in a chance interview in Tuesday’s Senate hearing on the sale of the Food Terminal Inc. complex.
When asked whether the Philippines has notified the WTO about its intention to retain the QR on rice, the NFA chief said the government has not filed the official notification.
Last month, Banayo said Manila will launch informal talks with trading partners that are expected to negotiate with the Philippines for the extension of the QR.
He said it is likely that the government would initially approach WTO member-countries who negotiated with the Philippines when the QR expired in 2005. These nine WTO members are the United States, China, India, Argentina, Pakistan, Egypt, Canada, Australia and Thailand.
Apart from increasing the minimum access volume (MAV) for rice as a concession, an official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) earlier said the Philippines had to allow trading partners access to its wine and milk markets.
The QR has allowed the Philippines to limit the volume of rice that can be imported by the government every year, preventing a possible influx of cheap rice imports. In exchange for extending the QR until 2012, the Philippines agreed to increase its minimum access volume (MAV) for rice to 350,000 metric tons (MT) as a concession.
The Philippines also reduced tariffs on rice to 40 percent from 50 percent in 2007. MAV refers to the minimum volume of farm produce that it will allow to enter into the Philippines at reduced tariffs.
The government said it is keen on having the QR extended for three more years or until 2015. It wants to extend the protection on rice to prepare Filipino farmers for international trade and to achieve rice self-sufficiency by 2013.
