US tariff on PH sugar slashed to 10 percent
BACOLOD CITY—The United States has reduced its planned 17 percent tariff on Philippine sugar to 10 percent.
Sugar Regulatory Administration Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said in an interview on Saturday that the US announced that only a 10 percent tariff will be imposed on top of the existing 1.46 cents per pound of sugar imported to the US.
“The suspension of the 17 percent is until July 9 after which we do not know what will happen. So the Philippines will try to load ship and land in the US its export sugar under the sugar quota before July 9,” he said.
Azcona said he held a consultation with the industry stakeholders on April 15 who all agreed to the plan.
Exporters earlier expressed their alarm over US President Donald Trump’s imposition of a 17-percent tariff on Philippine goods, including sugar.
The Philippines, which has a 143,000-metric ton (MT) share in the US Sugar Quota, has allocated 66,235 MT of raw sugar for export to the US for crop year 2024-2025.
The Philippines is shipping out the first half of the allocation in May and the second half in June.
Azcona said about 20 to 30 Philippines exporters are involved in the export of the 66,235 MT of raw sugar to the US.
No harm to planters
Manuel Lamata, president of the United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines, said the 17-percent tariff supposedly imposed by Trump would have a very bad effect on the Philippine raw sugar exports to the US.
“It will carry a cost of 17 percent more so it may no longer be profitable for the traders to bring out the sugar for sale to the US. It will be too much,” Lamata said.
However, he said the US tariff would affect the traders and not the planters and workers.
Lamata said the Philippines could sell its sugar to the world market instead of filling its share of the US sugar quota.
“The Philippines exports sugar to reduce oversupply during the peak of the milling season to prevent a drop in millgate prices,” he explained.
Lamata said domestic consumption of sugar is only about 180,000 MT a month and the country is producing 300,000 MT.
The Philippine milling season is expected to end in the first week of June.
