MANILA -- Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez on Tuesday said his department has to study the proposal from the House of Representative to scrap import duties on some tin products aiming to help ease the rising inflation.
Kabayan Party-list Representative and Member of House Committee on Economic Affairs Ron Salo is proposing for a zero import duty rate on tin products to lower the cost of manufacturing canned goods that are consumed by millions of Filipinos.
Local manufacturers are importing tin bars, rods, profiles and wires; tin plates, sheets, and strips; and unwrought tin, alloys and non-alloys. Import duties of these products currently ranges from 1 to 3 percent.
“We are convinced that bringing these down to zero will have little revenue loss impact, but significant reduction on the cost of canned goods,” Salo said in a press statement.
In a text message to the Philippine News Agency, Lopez noted that lowering the import duties to zero will cut the cost of manufacturing canned goods.
“But for tin cans, there are local manufacturers and I heard there’s competition,” he said.
“I will have to review what [are the] tariffs now and what would be the impact on local producers,” he added.
Earlier, Lopez mentioned that there are some brands of canned goods that increased their prices because of the increasing world prices of tin plates used in manufacturing cans.
The depreciating peso likewise makes it more expensive to import these raw materials for tin can production.
However, the trade chief pointed out that the higher world oil prices and supply constraints in some agricultural products are the main drivers of rising price pressures in the past months, and not the manufactured products.
In July, the country's inflation rate hit a five-year high of 5.7 percent. (PNA)
