FINANCE Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has called on lawmakers to support President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive allowing increased pork imports at lower tariff rates for a temporary period to address the scarcity in the domestic supply of hog meat and ensure that pork remains affordable to Filipino families already reeling from the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dominguez said the recommendation to the President to temporarily reduce pork import tariffs and increase the Minimum Access Volume (MAV) on pork imports was made by him and the Economic Development Cluster after extensive deliberations and consultations among concerned agencies and the public, with all the tradeoffs considered in the cost benefit analysis done on this major consumer concern.

At the same time, Dominguez, as chairman of the Land Bank of the Philippines, said the government, through Landbank, will double its support for domestic hog raisers and feed millers by providing them with loans for repopulating their stock and for feed milling.

In a letter addressed to Sen. President Vicente Sotto III, Dominguez said he is taking full responsibility for supporting and recommending Executive Order (EO) 128, which temporarily modified the rates of the import duties on fresh, chilled and frozen meat of swine and increased the MAV on such imports.

Short term