Breaking News
Loren: Smuggling, imports
will kill local agriculture
January 30, 2010 12:00 NN
Senator Loren Legarda called today for decisive government moves to stop unabated smuggling and uncontrolled importation of fruits, vegetables and other farm products that could eventually kill local agriculture and exacerbate poverty in the country.
Loren cited the sad experience of vegetable growers, such as those producing onion and garlic, who have been deprived of their source of livelihood because of unfair competition posed by cheap onions and garlic from other countries, mainly from neighboring countries.
Loren lamented that growers of local fruits, such as lanzones, are feeling the pinch brought about by the unrestricted entry of imported fruits.
In coconut-producing provinces as Laguna and Quezon, the senator pointed out, farmers are also facing economic difficulties because of dwindling demand for coconut and coconut-based products, such as macapuno, because of stiff competition from cheaper imported products.
Loren said that corruption in the bureaucracy is responsible for large-scale smuggling that deprives the government of much-needed revenues that in turn keeps poverty in the country at very high levels.
Apart from corruption, the other problem that stunts the growth of local agriculture and industry is the government’s “unthinking commitment to globalization, or borderless trade, which at first glance is beneficial to the economy but on closer inspection may actually work at cross-purposes to our economic advance.”
Loren pointed out that while farmers in the developed countries are subsidized, Filipinos farmers are simply left to their own devices and face unfair competition from cheap products abroad dumped into the country from abroad.
Loren said that while the Philippines should respect and uphold its international commitments, such as to the World Trade Organization, it also has the responsibility to protect its own citizenry from unfair competition from abroad.
In the end, Loren said, “it’s all a matter of protecting the national interest.”
