WHEREAS, the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture embodies the rules and commitments of WTO members in improving market access and promoting fairer competition in agriculture;

WHEREAS, Annex 5 of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, otherwise known as the œspecial treatment  provision, provides for restriction on imports of primary sensitive agricultural products subject to strictly defined conditions;

WHEREAS, the Philippine government applied for a seven (7) year extension of the Special Treatment on rice under Annex 5 of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Agriculture until 2012;

WHEREAS, Paragraph 9, Section B, Annex 5 of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture mandates the Philippine government to compensate other WTO member countries by reducing the Most Favored Nation (MFN) rates of duty on certain agriculture products for the requested seven (7) year extension of the special treatment on rice;

WHEREAS, the modification and rectifications of Schedule LXXV of the Philippines took effect on 27 December 2006;

WHEREAS, Section 402 of the Tariff and Customs Code of 1978, as amended, empowers the President to modify import duties for the promotion of foreign trade.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO, President of the Republic of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby order:

SECTION 1. The articles specifically listed in œAnnex A  hereof, as classified under Section 104 of the Tariff and Customs Code of 1978, as amended, shall be subject to the rates of import duty in accordance with the schedule indicated indicated opposite each article.

SECTION 2. The Nomenclature and the rates of import duty on tariff headings not enumerated and those listed but represented by the symbol œX X X  shall remain in force and in effect.

SECTION 3. Upon the effectivity of this Executive Order, the articles specifically listed in the aforesaid Annex œA  which are entered or withdrawn from warehouses in the Philippines for consumption shall be levied the rates of duty herein prescribed.

SECTION 4. All other Presidential issuances, administrative rules and regulations, or parts thereof, which are inconsistent with this Executive Order are hereby revoked or modified accordingly.

SECTION 5. This Executive Order shall take effect immediately following its complete publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation in the Philippines.

Done in the City of Manila, this 15th day of June, in the year of Our Lord, Two Thousand and Seven.

 

(SGD.) GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO

By the President:

(SGD.) EDUARDO R. ERMITA
Executive Secretary