PHL fights to keep favored status under US sugar quota scheme

Stakeholders in the Philippine sugar industry are fighting to keep the US Tariff Rate Quota scheme under the new US Farm Bill Act. 

 

Ma. Regina Martin, administrator of the Sugar Regulatory Administration, said in a text message to reporters Tuesday, “We are now en route to Washington for another round of lobbying for future Philippine sugar exports to the US.”

 

The US Congress is now reviewing the Farm Bill Act–America’s primary agriculture policy tool–with some legislators thinking of removing the TRQ, said Martin. 

 

Reviewed and passed every five years, the Farm Bill Act deals all the concerns of the US Department of Agriculture.

 

Under the new Farm Bill Act, the Philippines is concerned it may lose its preferred country status and with it the annual sugar quota export to the US at a premium over market rates. 

 

The Philippine export quota is 136,000 metric tons (MT).

 

The US is under pressure to adopt a globalized approach to the quota scheme under the Doha Round, with no country getting any specific allocation but on a first come, first served basis.

 

Last April, the US government announced it would buy 72,373.653 MT more from the Philippines–on top of the usual yearly allocation of 136,000 MT–in fiscal year 2012.

 

The Philippines last year shipped 226,000 MT raw sugar to the US under the quota scheme, which included 90,000 MT in additional volume over the traditional allocation. —VS, GMA News