Import tariffs slashed as food inflation bites
By Javier Blas in London
Published: December 17 2007 02:00 | Last updated: December 17 2007 02:00
Import tariffs for big agricultural commodities, in particular cereals, vegetable oils and rice, are being slashed in an effort by developed and developing countries to cushion their local markets against rising food inflation.
The move comes as food inflation, which hit over the summer, shows signs of resurgence, with cereal prices rising sharply, boosted by strong demand and tumbling inventories.
Turkey is the latest country to announce a reduction in custom duties, having recently cut its import tariff for wheat from 130 per cent to 8 per cent, for corn from 130 per cent to 35 per cent and scrapped the previous 100 per cent duty for barley.
The European Union - the world's top importer of wheat and one of the largest buyers of soyabean and corn - has also announced it will set zero import duties for cereals until June.
This follows cuts in countries such as China, Russia, Mexico, Morocco, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Egypt, Philippines, Taiwan, Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, Ghana and Peru. Some have said these will be short-term measures.
Ali Arslan Gurkan, head of the commodity market division at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, said the tariff cuts were the latest sign that policymakers were trying to cope with rising food costs.
"Governments are finding it politically inevitable to reduce local food prices and this situation is likely to continue," Mr Gurkan said.
This year, Morocco cut its wheat import tariff from 130 per cent to 2.5 per cent after suffering a drought that halved its own crop. China has cut its soyabean import tariff from 3 to 1 per cent in an effort to increase local supplies after rising food costs pushed inflation to its highest rate in 11 years. The cut has boosted imports and pushed the oilseed crop price to a 34-year record.
Russia will cut its import tariff for soya oil and rapeseed oil from 15 per cent to 5 per cent this month, while Nigeria is set to slash its rice import tax from 100 per cent to just 2.7 per cent at the beginning of next year.
Sorin Vasloban, of the Paris-based cereal trading house Plantureux, said: "The prices of agricultural commodities have stabilised at very high levels and countries need to resort to these measures [cutting tariffs] to control inflation."
But the reduction in import tariffs has been offset by higher export tariffs - which aim to keep local markets well supplied - in several key exporting countries.
Argentina this month joined the path taken earlier by Russia and Kazakhstan.
The tariff cuts will not have an impact on the Doha trade talks, as they apply to bound tariffs - the legal upper limits - rather than applied duties.
The latest tariff cuts come as cereals and soyabean prices climb to new highs propelled by a warning by the US Department of Agriculture this month that unabated demand from emerging countries is denting inventories dramatically.
In Chicago, wheat futures for March 2008 delivery rose to an all-time high of $9.79½ a bushel, just below the summer's all-time high, $9.61¾. March corn futures moved to $4.38¼ a bushel, within a whisker of a 11-year high.