FOOD imports are obviously a delicate subject here in the Philippines, and the issuance of Administrative Order (AO) 20 last month was, on its own, a huge leap in the wrong direction. The issuance of AO 23 last week, however, might fix the flaws in AO 20 and help to make it work as intended.

AO 20 sought to remove a number of perceived non-tariff barriers to imports based on the fundamental reasoning that any increase in the food supply, regardless of what the source of that supply is, results in lower food prices. Food prices have been the biggest driver of sticky price inflation for more than a year already, and that is something that politicians and economic nerds alike are understandably quite anxious to control.