POSITION PAPER
Committee: Federation of Free Farmers
Topic: Rice Tarrification Law and Drafting of IRR
Country: Philippines
Delegate (s):
Kaye Ivana S. Solis
Jannelle Micah Catalan
Kathleen Balboa
Filipino farmers face a negative impact since the passing of the Philippine Rice Tarrification Law.
The Philippines became self-sufficient in rice in the 1970’s and was a rice exporter to neighboring
countries such as Indonesia, China, Myanmar. However, with the rapid increase in population and
limited land resources to produce the total rice requirement, the country slowly turned into a net rice
importer. The Philippines is the second largest rice importer in the world next to China (Simeon,
2019). In 2017, the country imports rice mainly from Vietnam (52%) and Thailand (29%) (Santiago,
2019)
Rice is a highly political commidity because it is country’s main staple. It has always been the center of
government agricultural policies. The focal points of the policies revolve around promoting food self-
sufficiency, providing high income to rice farmers while making prices affordable to the consuming
public. (Tobias et al., 2011)
The Rice Tarrification Law titled “An Act liberalizing the importation, exportation, and trading of rice,
lifting for the purpose the quantitative import restriction on rice, and for other purposes” was signed
into law by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte on February 14, 2019. This is also known as the Rice
Liberalization Act or Republic Act No. 11203, which amends the Agricultural Tarrification Act of 1996
that imposed tariff to agricultural imports except for rice. Primarily, the law aims to lift the
quantitative restriction (QR) on rice imports and replace it with a general tariff. The Agricultural
Tarrification Act of 1996 served as the Phillippine government’s compliance to our obligation to WTO,
lifting QRs and imposing tariff to agricultural products. The law aims to protect local farmers from the
entry or more imported rice into the country through the imposition of 35% tariff on rice coming
frome member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) like Thailand and
Vietnam. For non-ASEAN countries, 40% tariff is imposed. The collected tariffs will be used to fund
mass irrigation, warehousing, and rice research.
The Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) has been in charge of implementing the Filipino component of
ESFIM. Established in 1953, it is one of the oldest farmer organisations in the country. The FFF has a
Federation, in charge of lobbying activities and farmers’ participation in the policy dialogue, as well as
a commercial branch, the Federation for Free Farmers Cooperative, Inc. (FFFCI), in charge of economic
and support activities (collective marketing, technical and management support and training to FFF
members). The FFF vision to empower farmers through participation in a democratic process
promoting reforms differs from more radical farmer organisations in the Filipino political landscape.
FFF has a long tradition of interactions with various political institutions (government, parliament…) to
promote its view and influence, as much as possible, the regulations and public policies that shape
the transformation of the Filipino agriculture. In particular, the FFF has held a key position in the
debate about Filipino adhesion to the WTO and its potential impact on rural livelihoods. Furthermore,
the charismatic and strong leadership of the FFF have also been very active on the international stage:
Raul Montemayor, the FFF National Manager, has been one of the vice presidents of International
Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) and the FFF has participated in several regional and
international projects and initiatives
FFF national manager Raul Montemayor said the inclusion of farmer representatives in the PSC was
incorporated in the original draft of the IRR, and nobody raised any objections
