Sotto: Imported agri products flood market, farmers hit hard
CABANATUAN CITY – Citing history, Senate President Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto III has traced the blame on the country’s current importation woes to the approval of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)-World Trade Organization back in December 1994.
Speaking to reporters during a Zoom meeting held last Wednesday, Sotto, now a vice presidential contender in next year’s national polls, said that its ratification by the Senate by a vote of 18-5 and its approval by then-President Fidel V. Ramos in 1994 led the country to its present situation now with the local market being flooded with imported agricultural products such as rice, vegetables and frozen meat products, like pork, chicken and fish.
“Totoo itong nangyayari sa atin ngayon hindi ba, dahil puro importation ang pumapatay sa ating magsasaka ngayon,” said Sotto, a Novo Ecijano, whose mother Dr. Herminia Castelo-Sotto hails from Cabanatuan City.
“Noong ipinapasa pa lang itong bill na ito sa Senado, winarningan ko na sila, sabi ko, ipinagdarasal ko na kami ang mali at sila ang tama sapagkat nakikinita ko na ang magiging epekto nito sa ating magsasaka,” added Sotto, recalling the events prior to the GATT-WTO’s Senate ratification by a vote of 18 “yes” and five “nays” that led to its approval by Ramos in 1994.
He explained that he proved his heart belongs to Nueva Ecija when he first thought of the welfare of the local farmers and voted against the GATT-WTO bill’s ratification. Aside from him, he said the four others who rejected the controversial measure were then-senators Ernesto Maceda, Wigberto Tañada, Anna Dominque Coseteng and Arturo Tolentino.
Prior to its ratification that time, Sotto recalled coming over to Malacañang upon the President’s invitation. Inside the Palace study room, he said he talked to Ramos, who prodded him to vote in favor of the GATT-WTO, saying the country needed it “to expand trade with the rest of the world in order to sustain its drive for economic progress.”
In his reply, Sotto recalled telling Ramos: “Sir, pag-aaralan ko po ito pero sasabihin ko na sa inyo, wala po akong ipapakitang mukha sa Nueva Ecija kapag bumoto ako pabor diyan.”
During the Zoom meeting, the Senate President also said that he made a privilege speech citing that our farmers are at a losing end with the large-scale smuggling of agriculture products now prevailing in the country “because some unscrupulous individuals are in cahoots with the smugglers.”
Sotto made mention that Department of Agriculture officials led by Secretary William Dar, who were invited to the Senate hearing, were even caught stammering when asked about the issue of massive importation that has been affecting the industry and putting the farmers’ livelihood in peril.
Under the GATT-WTO, the free entry of imported products is allowed to all member-countries through a multi-lateral trade liberalization scheme that cuts tariffs by an average of 36 percent over a six-year period for developed countries and 24 percent over 10 years for developing nations.
