Latest news with #pricecontrol
NHK
2 days ago
- Business
- NHK
Expert sees little effect on rice prices from release of reserves
The agriculture ministry started distribution to retailers nationwide through fixed contracts. An expert says this may not be enough to bring down sky-high prices.
Bloomberg
5 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Japan Pauses Stockpile Sales as Retailers Snap Up Rice
Japan paused its sale of rice reserves after seeing a fast response from retailers, in a positive sign for the government's efforts to temper soaring rice prices and ease consumers' cost-of-living concerns ahead of an election this summer. Major players including Rakuten Group Inc. and Pan Pacific International Holdings Corp., the parent company of popular discount store Don Quijote, were among the some 70 retailers to secure a portion of the 200,000 metric tons of the staple grain on sale Tuesday, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
Japan Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
‘Rice minister' Koizumi faces urgent task to bring prices down quickly
New farm minister Shinjiro Koizumi plans to move from auctioning stockpiled rice to using no-bid contracts, with prices set through negotiation, in an effort to bring down record-high prices. Koizumi, who took over after his predecessor, Taku Eto, stepped down over a gaffe about rice, faces the urgent task of bringing down prices. Public dissatisfaction has grown following Eto's comment that he never buys rice because his supporters give him so much he can sell the surplus. 'I'll focus on rice, considering myself as the rice minister,' Koizumi told reporters at the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday. At a news conference following his inauguration later that evening, Koizumi said that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba instructed him to consider releasing stockpiled rice through no-bid contracts. 'I'd like to definitively lower prices with the new voluntary contracts we are going to start,' Koizumi said, adding that he instructed ministry officials to implement measures to conduct no-bid contracts and cancel the next auction scheduled for May 28. The government has been auctioning off the stockpiled rice since March. But ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers have been questioning whether the auction method — in which buyers attempt to obtain the product by bidding higher — is really effective in bringing down prices. 'The government purchased the rice in the stockpile (from farmers) at around ¥11,000 ($77) to ¥12,000 (per 60 kilograms). However, it is now being auctioned off for over ¥22,000,' said LDP policy chief Itsunori Onodera last week. 'To me, it's like, 'what is the government doing profiting from this?'' The hope is that through no-bid contracts, the government can sell rice at a lower price not just to distributors but also to retailers so that the product will reach consumers quicker. 'I am now instructing (the ministry) to come up with a new system from scratch,' added Koizumi. 'We need to make a bold move that is different from what we have done in the past, including unlimited release (of stockpiled rice) if there is a demand for it.' Despite the government having auctioned off a total of around 310,000 metric tons of rice over the past three rounds of auction, prices in supermarkets remain at an all-time high. The average price was ¥4,268 per 5 kg in the week starting May 5, more than double what it was at the same time last year. The stockpiled rice — of which nearly 97% has been bid for by the nation's biggest distributor, the National Federation of Agricultural Co-operative Associations (Zen-Noh) — is taking time to be processed. Only 10% of the rice auctioned in the first two rounds have hit the shelves so far. The mismatch between the auction process and the government's intention of bringing down prices may be due to the fact that when the plan was initially announced in February, the release of the stockpile was primarily intended to resolve the bottleneck in the supply chain, not bring down prices. However, following pressure from the Ishiba administration, the focus has shifted to dealing with the rising prices — which is now Koizumi's mission ahead of a crucial Upper House election in July. 'Going forward, we will first and foremost tackle the rice policy at hand and ensure that the price goes down,' said Koizumi. 'And then, on top of that, we will consider the medium- to long-term rice policy, and what to do if there is a surplus down the line ... and commit to providing a safety net for farmers so that they can engage in agriculture with peace of mind.'
Fox News
13-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Trump's ‘wrong-headed' effort to lower drug costs amounts to price control: expert
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday instructing drug companies to reduce prices of prescription drugs or face consequences from the federal government. But the effort amounts to price control since it's not limited to just government programs — and similar policy initiatives in other sectors have prompted shortages, according to Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Washington-based libertarian-leaning Cato Institute think tank. "We have seen government price controls in housing," Cannon told Fox News Digital Monday. "We call it rent control, and it creates shortages. We have seen it when it comes to food. We call them price caps there too, and it produces shortages." "We see price caps after natural disasters," he continued. "We call them anti-gouging laws, and they produce shortages. And so that's what we can expect price controls to produce when it comes to pharmaceuticals as well — that's if you have a binding price ceiling, you're going to get a shortage, and I think it's totally a wrong-headed thing." Price control occurs when the government steps in to impose limits on how much one can charge for various goods or services in the free market. While price controls may lower costs for some consumers, they have largely been ineffective in American history. For example, former President Richard Nixon implemented price controls in the 1970s in an attempt to fix wages and other prices — which backfired and resulted in the gas crisis and other shortages across the country. For example, there was a series of initiatives that states unveiled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to address price-gouging, although they were difficult to enforce. In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order in March 2020 that barred individuals or businesses from selling any products in the state "at a price that is more than 20 percent higher than what the business or individual offered or charged," according to a 2020 news release. Trump announced Monday that the executive order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to establish price targets for pharmaceutical manufacturers. But Cannon noted that the order isn't just for prices for the government — it also applies to the free market and private sector. Failure to comply will prompt the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to "undertake enforcement action against any anti-competitive practices," along with other consequences. Additionally, Trump introduced plans to launch "most favored nations drug pricing." "The principle is simple — whatever the lowest price paid for a drug in other developed countries, that is the price that Americans will pay," Trump said at the White House Monday. "Some prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices will be reduced almost immediately by 50 to 80 to 90%." "We're going to equalize," Trump said. "We're all going to pay the same. We're going to pay what Europe pays." The White House pushed back against comments that the move equated price control. "If Americans had a truly free and fair market, they would not be paying several times more for the same exact prescription drugs as Europeans do," White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a Tuesday statement to Fox News Digital. "President Trump's historic executive order is fixing the anti-competitive behavior that's forcing everyday Americans to subsidize the health care of other developed nations." Drug prices have dramatically climbed in recent years. From January 2022 and January 2023, prescription drug prices increased more than 15%, reaching an average of $590 per drug product, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Of the 4,200 prescription drugs included on that list, 46% of the price increases exceeded the rate of inflation. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America trade group argued the executive order would harm American patients. "Importing foreign prices from socialist countries would be a bad deal for American patients and workers," Stephen J. Ubl, the president and CEO of PhRMA, said in a Monday statement. "It would mean less treatments and cures and would jeopardize the hundreds of billions our member companies are planning to invest in America." In April, Trump signed another executive order that aimed to tackle Medicare drug prices. Specifically, that order required HHS to standardize Medicare payments for prescription drugs, including those used for cancer patients, regardless of where a patient receives treatment. Patients could face a drop in prices by as much as 60%, according to a White House fact sheet. The order also called to match the Medicare payment for certain prescription drugs to the price that hospitals pay for those drugs, up to 35% lower than what the government pays to acquire those medications, per the White House.
Free Malaysia Today
08-05-2025
- Health
- Free Malaysia Today
No difference between doctors, sundry shop owners, minister says on consumer rights
Domestic trade and cost of living minister Armizan Mohd Ali said the price control act does not state that it is only meant for certain categories. (Bernama pic) PETALING JAYA : The domestic trade and cost of living minister today said there is no difference between professionals and sundry shop owners when it comes to consumer rights, following a protest by doctors over the mandatory display of drug prices. Armizan Mohd Ali said as long as businesses sold goods to consumers, the government was responsible for ensuring that the public, as consumers, had access to information and the right to make an informed choice. 'However, the ministry will work with the health ministry to review the memorandum,' he told FMT. His remarks followed a gathering by hundreds of general practitioners (GPs) near Perdana Putra on Tuesday, where they reiterated that the new rule should be enforced under the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998. Malaysian Medical Association president-elect Dr R Thirunavukarasu also said that the government should not 'compare professional medical services with opening a grocery store'. The GPs had handed a memorandum to the government, demanding that private clinics be removed from the purview of the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011. They also called for a review of GPs's consultation fees, which have remained unchanged for the last 30 years. They likewise urged the health ministry to regulate third-party administrators' control over private clinics and reassess foreign ownership in the healthcare sector. Armizan said the price control act did not state that it was only meant for certain categories, maintaining that it applied to everyone. 'There are no exceptions. Many existing sectors are bound by it,' he added. He also said that as long as goods were sold to customers, irrespective of their nature, Section 10 of the Act empowered the minister to determine regulations regarding labelling and price tags. Armizan said the mandatory display of drug prices was not the first time the Act was being enforced in the healthcare sector. He said the ministry had been ordered to enforce the law when it came to Covid-19 vaccines, face masks, and rapid antigen test devices during the pandemic. Armizan previously said that displaying medicine prices would not prevent clinics or pharmacies from adjusting them.
