The government will lift the imposition of special safeguard duty (SSG) on imports of coffee products as part of its counterinflationary measures and as a sign of goodwill, amid the ongoing agricultural trade talks between the Philippines and Indonesia.
“It was part of our anti-inflationary measures and we are restarting our negotiations with Indonesia,” Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol told the BusinessMirror.
Piñol said he issued an order on December 7, during the Senate plenary deliberations on the Department of Agriculture’s budget, requesting the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to lift the SSG imposition.
Piñol explained that he decided to lift it to further slow down the country’s inflation. He added that Indonesia had requested the lifting of the SSG as a “goodwill” measure.
However, the BOC has yet to issue a memorandum circular that will implement Piñol’s order.
In March, Piñol issued Department Order 6 that invoked the imposition of SSG duty on out-quota importation of various agricultural commodities, which includes several coffee products such as instant coffee.
These coffee products include:
The imposition of SSG on the above-mentioned products took effect on April 20 following the issuance by the BOC of a memorandum circular.
The imposition of SSG was questioned by Sen. Francis Escudero during a Senate hearing on the DA’s proposed 2019 budget in September. Escudero asked why the DA imposed SSG on coffee imports at a time when inflation was skyrocketing.
Escudero argued that lawmakers had exempted coffee from additional excise taxes under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law to avert spikes in prices, noting that the DA opted to impose the SSG, which could make the drink more expensive.
Indonesia also questioned the Philippines’s imposition of SSG during a September meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Committee on Agriculture.
Indonesia, the source of certain popular instant coffee brands, noted that the imposition of additional duties on coffee products greatly affects them.
“Having substantial interests in supplying these agriculture product categories, Indonesia would like to express its deep regret on the imposition of this measure by the Philippines,” Jakarta said.
The Philippines argued that it “undertook due diligence by factoring in the very significant increased imports of coffee products in the last three to four years” in invoking the SSG duties.
For example, the country’s instant coffee imports in 2017 expanded by almost 35 percent to 81,900.466 metric tons (MT), from 60,732.319 MT recorded volume in 2016, according to Philippine Statistics Authority data.
Prior to the imposition of SSG on coffee products this year, about 20,539.373 MT of instant coffee entered the country in the first quarter alone. The figure, however, was 29.35 percent lower than the 29,071.865 MT recorded imported volume in the January-to-March period of 2017.
From January to October, the country’s instant coffee imports declined by more than half, or by 60.73 percent, to 28,626.795 MT from 72,905.156 MT recorded volume during the same 10-month period last year.
Source: Business Mirror
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<p>Time: November 2025<br /> By: WTO and International Trade Group, Legal Department – VCCI</p>
