By IRMA ISIP
The sugar industry must make a strong case in its bid for the
continued protection of the commodity from liberalization in Asean until 2010.
The Tariff Commission will hear today a petition of the Sugar
Alliance of the Philippines to retain the tariff on sugar at 38 percent and
transfer the commodity from the inclusion list of sectors to highly sensitive in
order to exempt it from tariff liberalization of the Asean common effective
preferential tariff (CEPT) scheme.
But a government source said the sugar industry has to make a
good case since it has enjoyed years of protection even as it languished due to
inefficiencies in harvesting and milling and higher transport costs.
The source said the industry simply has to modernize. The
source said the sugar industry wants to take advantage of the-two year window
before the implementation of free trade within Asean in 2010. The commodity is
scheduled for another cut in tariff, to 28 percent, by 2009, then zero by 2010.
The source added that by listing sugar as highly sensitive,
the commodity will have a maximum tariff of 5 percent.
The source added that the sugar industry’s request must also
be balanced with the interest of users like the food processors and exporters
and the beverage industry which do not get a good price of sugar due to high
tariff walls.
Unlike Indonesia which has been able to list sugar as highly
sensitive, the Philippines has put sugar in the sensitive list until 2010 and
this has to phase into gradual tariff cuts as part of the Asean free trade
agreement. Thailand is the major exporter of sugar.
Reports said the sugar industry posted its highest yield in more than two
decades in the crop year 2007 to 2008 to 2.45 million metric tons.
