THE World Trade Organization has allowed the Philippines to keep its quantitative restrictions on rice imports until 2012, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap said.

"The approval was dated Dec. 27, 2006, but we got it only in mid February," Yap said in an interview.

Negotiations for the extension took more than two years because other WTO member countries contested it. The previous quantitative restriction on rice expired in June 2005.

To get the extension, the government had to hold bilateral negotiations with nine countries: United States, Thailand, Australia, Egypt, Canada, Pakistan, Argentina, India and China.

The extension will give the farm sector time to improve efficiency and competitiveness before full liberalization of the Philippine rice market in 2012, Yap noted.
Farmers will continue until then to enjoy protection from possible influx of lower-priced rice that may come from Thailand and Vietnam, the world's two largest rice exporters, he said.

As a developing country, the Philippines is allowed by the WTO to give its agriculture sector subsidy or support equivalent to 10 percent, or about P85 billion, of the sector's gross value receipts.

However, budgetary constraints prevent the government from doing support programs for the rice sector, Yap said.

The WTO approval of the extension is "very timely because it is only now that the government has the political will and the money to boost rice production in the country," he said.

The agriculture department hopes to increase rice output by promoting use of high-yield hybrid and certified seeds, and rehabilitating irrigation facilities covering close to 250,000 hectares of land planted to rice.

"If we stick with this program, we will become self-sufficient by 2010," Yap said.

"Funding for repair and rehabilitation of irrigation facilities needs to be constant," he noted. "That's the fundamental investment we are looking into so we can recover at least 200,000 hectares by 2010."

The four-year irrigation repair plan entails a budgetary requirement of P14.5 billion.

He said that for 2007 alone, the department was targeting to rehabilitate 52,000 hectares of irrigated farmlands, which would cost P3.1 billion, based on a repair cost of P60,000 per hectare.

The Philippines plans to import up to 1.6 million tons of rice this year. With INQUIRER.net