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Sugar sector also seen to go into crisis in 2010

By Ayen Infante

03/27/2008

The local sugar industry warned of a possible crisis in the sector when the import duty is lowered to 28 percent and further to between zero and five percent in 2010 under the Asean Free Trade Area-Common Effective Preferential Tariff Agreement (Afta-Cept).

In a statement, the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) said the concern was raised by the Sugar Regulatory Adminis-tration (SRA) along with the industry’s stakeholders who were partly blaming the government for not doing anything to transfer sugar to highly sensitive list from sensitive list.

According to the FPI, the industry has been pushing the change in category of sugar under the agreement as early as 2004.

Under the sensitive list where Philippine sugar is now listed, tariff will be reduced to zero to five percent by year 2010, while if the product is listed under the highly sensitive list, the Philippines may determine higher tariff than five percent or even as high as 38 percent under the AFTA.

Once the tariff is lowered to 28 percent by 2009 and further to zero to five percent by 2010, the sugar industry fears the influx of imported sugar that may adversely affect the livelihood of over five million Filipinos, who depends on the sector.

Confederation of Sugar Producers Association Inc. (ConFed) further warned that the government may fail to meet its target of attaining 2 million jobs in the industry by 2010 without the reclassification of the product under AFTA.

With the industry employing 600,000 workers, and a projection to increase the numbers to 670,000 by 2010 and 700,000.

In 2012, ConFed said all these may not be possible under the present scenario. These workers are distributed in 19 major sugar producing provinces in the country.

The SRA, meanwhile, has reiterated its position to exempt Philippine sugar from the tariff reduction under AFTA, pending its petition to transfer its listing to highly sensitive list.