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DEMOCRATIC SPACE
Alarmed over dumping of imported US rice; peasants' upcoming harvest now imperiled

BY BAGONG ALYANSANG MAKABAYAN (BAYAN)

“Mrs. President, will you be as mad if the peasant majority suffer due to rice imports?”

Thus asked the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan over the impending sale of the P1.5 billion pesos worth of imported US rice which caught President Macapagal-Arroyo’s ire the past few days.

“The President should worry more about how the 1.4 million sacks of rice will be sold, who will sell them, at what price and at what impact to the peasant majority who are now preparing for harvest season,” said Bayan Secretary-General Teodoro Casiño.

Casiño said that peasants are fearing that traders, especially those who won the bidding for the sale of the imported rice from the US, may sell it at a lower and, therefore, unfair price than what should be. “The lives and livelihood of millions of peasants are at stake if the imported rice from US is pegged lower than locally-produced ones.”

“This imported rice is of high quality and should be priced accordingly. If not, the peasants would have a hard time this harvest season. They would have to compete with such irregularly priced rice that may soon flood the market and push down demand further for local rice varieties,” he explained.

Philippines: From rice granary to retailer

The Bayan leader also urged Congress to review the trade liberalization policy as the Department of Trade and Industry bared the reduction of tariff in over 300 other imported products, including agricultural products. The tariff-reduction is in line with the country’s commitment to the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Agriculture (WTO-AOA).

“Such policy has resulted in the food insecurity, our transformation from one of Asia’s rice granaries to an unapologetic rice importer and to the loss of over 700,000 jobs,” he said.

“True, our agriculture is backward but this is mainly due to land ownership concentrated on a few and lack of sufficient government support. Such problems got worse due to unbridled importation. Dependence on imports for our food needs has only made us susceptible to the vagaries of the international market and took a heavy toll on the peasant majority,” Casiño said. Bulatlat.com

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