AMID pressure from trade partners, Manila informed the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it is hopeful of passing the legislation that would convert its quantitative restriction (QR) on rice into tariffs before the year ends. A trade official privy to the matter told the BusinessMirror the Philippines informed members of the WTO at last week’s Committee on Agriculture (COA) meeting that it is facing unavoidable delays in passing its rice-tariffication law. The delay, according to the trade official, who was not authorized to speak for the Philippines, was caused by other pressing priority legislation initiatives of the President and limited resources in Legislative and Executive branches of the government. It reassured WTO members it will continue to work on it within its resource limit and hopefully update the information within the year, who is based in Geneva where the WTO is also headquartered. The Philippines said hopefully the tariffication legislation can be adopted within this year.