Manila keeps sugar tariff

Manila keeps sugar tariff

MANILA (Reuter): The Philippines will maintain tariffs on sugar imports from Southeast Asian countries at 65 percent, documents from the Agriculture Department said yesterday.

President Fidel Ramos, in an executive order signed on June 17, ordered that the country's tariff on imported sugar from Southeast Asian nations be maintained at 65 percent starting on July 1 up to 1998, the documents said.

Earlier, as part of its commitment to the ASEAN Free Trade agreement, Manila had decided to cut the tariff to 52.5 percent beginning July 1.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brunei and the Philippines.

Philippine sugar farmers and millers had complained that the planned tariff cut on the import of Southeast Asian sugar would kill the local sugar industry.

Manila was swamped by imported sugar, mostly from Thailand, in recent months, resulting in a glut.