Asean Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve 

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On 7 April 2017, Mr. Chanpithya Shimphalee, the General Manager (GM) of the APTERR Secretariat, delivered a presentation on “the ASEAN Food Reserve and the Changing Regional Trade Regime: Status and Prospects” at the Regional Workshop on Food Reserve Management and Policies in Southeast Asia at the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA)

 On 7 April 2017, Mr. Chanpithya Shimphalee, the General Manager (GM) of the APTERR Secretariat, delivered a presentation on “the ASEAN Food Reserve and the Changing Regional Trade Regime: Status and Prospects” at the Regional Workshop on Food Reserve Management and Policies in Southeast Asia at the Southeast Asian Regional Centre for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) Headquarters, Los Baños, Laguna, the Philippines. Afterwards, he was invited at the open forum with other speakers for discussions with participants on their presentations on regional food reserves. Lastly, he joined the breakout sessions for group presentation on the implications of a changing regional trade regime on national food reserves as well as the impacts of national food reserves on a regional stockpiling mechanism such as APTERR.

 

In summary, ASEAN food reserve like APTERR is necessary for strengthening regional food security due to rice-deficit problem in some member countries. Importantly, as clearly defined for emergency purposes, the existing trade regimes by the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) and the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) all support APTERR operations for assisting member countries due to emergency purposes. For prospects, more participation and commitments from APTERR member countries are vital for APTERR advancement. In addition, augmentation of current earmarked 787,000 MT of rice, realisation of Tier 1 and Tier 2 programmes as well as the establishment of the APTERR regional warehouse for storing physical rice reserves for speedy delivery of Tier 3 programme are required.

 

Participants are satisfied by the concept of APTERR regional warehouse establishment for abrupt emergency responses to affected member countries and suggested authorisation to the APTERR GM for increased automatic trigger of more than 50 MT of Tier 3 rice releases to prevent delayed emergency responses. Moreover, APTERR regional warehouse should seek facility supports from the private sector instead of investment by APTERR itself.