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Saturday, August 23, 2003
Benguet farmers fear collapse of veggie industry
By Harley F. Palangchao
LA TRINIDAD -- Farmers in this so-called "Salad Bowl of the Philippines," through Benguet Gov. Raul Molintas, have expressed fear of an impending collapse in the local vegetable industry brought about by trade liberalization agreements.
This developed as farmers claimed the lifting of import restrictions and the reduction of tariffs over the past few years caused imported vegetables to flood the domestic markets with an almost three-fold increase from 42,000 metric tons in 1995 to 115,000 metric tons in 2000.
The Philippine government agreed to remove import quotas and other restrictions several years ago in line with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade-World Trade Organization (Gatt-WTO), of which the Philippines is a member.
As such, the Stop the New Round 1 Coalition (SNRI), a broad network of organizations of farmers and peasants in the country, will hold a dialogue on the impact of agricultural trade liberalization on the vegetable industry at the Provincial Capitol on August 25.
The participants would also come out with a stand regarding the upcoming 5th WTO Ministerial Meeting on September 10 to 14 in Cancun, Mexico.
The new round of trade talks by representatives from 145 member countries, according to the SNRI, will focus on modalities of the new liberalization commitment in agriculture that calls for further tariff reduction on agricultural products.
Earlier, Molintas claimed the vegetable industry in Benguet would collapse if the government keeps its commitment to the Gatt-WTO as this would open the domestic market to competition from foreign markets.
The recently created Benguet Vegetable Commission is still ironing out various safety nets with regards trade liberalization of vegetable industry.
In Benguet, almost 70 percent of the 300,000 population rely on agriculture.
Meanwhile, the SNRI is calling for the extension of quarantine restrictions on rice imports and increase on agricultural sensitive products.
(August 23, 2003 issue)
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