The Philippine Tariff Commission is conducting a comprehensive review of its most favored nation tariff schedule. The U.S. Meat Export Federation filed comments in this proceeding, requesting that recent temporary reductions in the Philippines' MFN tariff rates for imported pork be adopted long-term.
Erin Borror, USMEF vice president of economic analysis, explains that temporary reductions (from 30% to 15% in quota and 40% to 25% out of quota) implemented in mid-2021 have smoothed supply constraints and mitigated the impact of African swine fever in the Philippines. Long-term adoption of these tariff reductions would bolster pork consumption by easing the impacts of inflation on Philippine consumers.
"The Philippines were kind of ahead of other countries that reduced pork tariffs or meat tariffs in general as part of an overall inflation battle," says Borror. "The Philippines had their tariff reductions starting in 2021 and this was largely due to their pork shortage due to African swine fever. It added 200,000 metric tons to the 54,000 roughly metric ton quota, which allowed for imports at a reduced tariff rate of 15%. So essentially cutting that rate in half and an out of quota rate of 40%, reduced down to 25. In 2022, they went ahead and extended the tariff reductions, however, that quota volume was not increased.
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