SOCIOECONOMIC Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia supports lowering tariffs for fish and meat imports to 5 percent to help contain the country’s rising inflation.

According to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director general, if these tariffs are lowered and the consolidated rice tariffication measure—House Bill 7735, or “An Act Replacing the Quantitative Import Restrictions on Rice with Tariffs and Creating the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund”—is enacted, inflation will dip by at least 1 percent.