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The Department of Agriculture is seeking the imposition of safeguard measures on various agricultural products, including coffee, hams and sausages, and other prepared and preserved meat
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At the same time, DA wants continuous imposition of safeguard measures on several other agricultural products
The Department of Agriculture (DA) has requested the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to impose or continue imposition of safeguard measures on select agricultural products.
Under DA Department Order (DO) No. 20 series of 2024 signed on October 4, safeguard measures will be applied on coffee, hams and sausages, and other prepared and preserved meat, among others.
On the other hand, safeguard measures will be continuously imposed on meat of bovine animals, meat and edible offals of fowls; wings, liver and other cuts of fowls of the species Gallus domesticus; hams and cuts thereof; instant coffee; extracts, essences and concentrates of coffee; and coffee preparation.
DO No. 20 took effect immediately and will remain in force until revoked in writing.
The imposition of safeguard measures is pursuant to Republic Act (RA) No. 8800 or the Safeguard Measures Act, which provides safeguard measures to protect domestic industries and producers from increased imports.
Under RA 8800, the agriculture secretary shall issue a DO requesting the BOC commissioner to impose an additional special safeguard duty on an agricultural product if its cumulative import volume in a given year exceeds its trigger volume, or its actual cost, insurance, and freight (CIF) import price is less than its trigger price.
Trigger price is the price benchmark for applying the special safeguard measure.
DO No. 20 said the safeguard measure should be imposed on a shipment-to-shipment basis, depending on the difference between the actual CIF price at the time of lodgment of import documents and the corresponding trigger price.
DO No. 20 also states that additional duty should be collected for imports of the covered agricultural products if their CIF import prices breach their respective trigger prices, pursuant to Section 24 of RA 8800.
