Agri chief Laurel says President set to sign rice deal in Vietnam

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. | PHOTO: PCO

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is set to sign a rice agreement with Vietnam during his state visit to the country later this January, according to Agriculture Secretary Francisco Laurel Jr. on Tuesday.

During the 43rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Indonesia last September 2023, Marcos  and Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh agreed to draft a five-year rice trade deal between Manila and Hanoi.

READ: PH and Vietnam draft a five-year rice trade agreement

“There was an agreement to draft an MOA (memorandum of agreement) or MOU (memorandum of understanding) and we were given instructions when we were in the Asean meeting in Japan by the President to draft, finalized the MOA with Vietnam, so that pagdating ng trip this coming end of January, in a state visit to Vietnam, mapirmahan na,” said Laurel in a Palace briefing.

(There was an agreement to draft an MOA or MOU and we were given instructions when we were in the ASEAN meeting in Japan by the President to draft, finalized the MOA with Vietnam, so that during his trip this coming end of January, in a state visit to Vietnam, it will be signed.)

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Laurel said that the working draft is almost done.

Asked what the deal would entail, Laurel said that it guarantees “that they will be supplying rice, even sa calamity situation. So that is part of our food safety. So that is good for us.”