Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 17) — President Rodrigo Duterte has kept duties for imported chicken and poultry until end-2020.
Duterte signed Executive Order (EO) 82 on June 13, which essentially preserved the lower tariffs for mechanically deboned meat of chicken and turkey, as well as turkey meat and offals, which are basically edible internal organs of poutry like gizzards.
The new issuance basically preserves the reduced five percent tariff set under EO 23 issued in 2017 which covers agricultural products; it lapses on June 30, 2020. According to the old EO, the rate will soar to 40 percent by 2021.
With the new EO, the lower import tariff for select poultry items will be in place until Dec. 31, 2020.
Malacañang sought to update the order, saying that present economic conditions warrant the sustained reduced rate for imported food items “to mitigate the impact of high prices of goods.” This also follows the recommendation of the National Economic and Development Authority Board, which Duterte chairs.
To recall, supply shortages for rice, meat, and vegetables pushed inflation to a nine-year high of 6.7 percent in September and October 2018. This shot way above the two to four percent target range of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, with the full-year figure averaging 5.2 percent.
Inflation has settled back down, with the May rate settling at 3.2 percent.
