Caesar B. Cororaton
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, United States of America
De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines
ccaesar@vt.edu
Krista Danielle S. Yu
De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines
Abstract:
Philippine domestic prices of rice are significantly higher than world prices for similar rice quality. The WTO-
approved Philippine rice waiver, which allows the government to continue its quantitative restrictions on rice imports, sustains
the price gap in rice and prolongs the heavy burden on poor consumers who spend a significant amount of their income on
rice. The results of rice policy simulations using a CGE model with poverty microsimulation indicate that a tariffication
of the quantitative restrictions on rice imports, which maintains the level of protection to the local paddy farmers and the
utilization of the generated revenue as cash transfers to targeted vulnerable groups, generates favorable income distribution
and poverty reduction effects. Tighter quantitative restriction on rice imports under the rice self-sufficiency program increases the burden on poor households and generates perverse income redistribution from poor to rich.
Keywords : Philippines, Rice, Computable General Equilibrium, Rice Tariffication
