Banana growers lobby for tariff reduction in FTAs

A GROUP of banana growers on Tuesday said the government should lobby for lower tariffs on locally grown Cavendish banana among the country’s trading partners.

In a statement, the Pilipino Banana Growers & Exporters Association Inc. warned that it may lose market share if the government fails to negotiate for tariff cuts in traditional exports markets.

“There is a need for a thorough review of our free trade agreements and assess our trading partners’ fulfillment of their commitments to ensure that we are at an outstanding edge in the trading game. In our case, the elimination or reduction of tariffs,” said Stephen Antig, PBGEA executive director.

The Philippines is a top supplier of fresh bananas in Japan, South Korea, China and New Zealand.

Cavendish banana is the Philippines’ top fruit export, but the fruit variety is classified under the exclusion list of imports by most, if not all of the country’s trading partners.

“That means our buyers have to pay import duties ranging from 40 to 10 percent of the value of the goods. This would pose as a stringent constraint and encourages our importers to get fresh bananas from our competitors like Ecuador, Peru and other producing countries at lower importation costs,” Antig said, citing a recent report from Ecuador.

Ecuador earlier indicated a huge increase in its banana exports to South Korea during the first five months of this year, with the volume increasing three-fold from 4.2 million tons in 2010 to 11.5 million tons this year.

“The Philippines ranks second to Ecuador as the top banana exporting country in the world, but it may not take long if the industry does not get the needed support from the government,” Antig said.

Senen Perlada, director of the Bureau of Export Trade Promotion told Davao investors to strengthen their partnership with the government to maximize the use of existing FTAs.

“FTAs are like trading games. If we don’t play, we simply lose by default,” Perlada said.

All agreements cover a total of 53 merchandise most of which are agro-industrial resource-based. To double the country’s exports, the government is relying on Mindanao to achieve this goal, Perlada said.

Considered as priority sectors in Mindanao are processed and fresh food, information and communication technology, and coconut.

The Philippines is party to the following FTAs: the Asean Free Trade Agreement, Asean-China Free Trade Agreement, Philippine-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, Asean-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, Asean-Korea Free Trade Agreement, Asean-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, and the recently ratified India-Asean Free Trade Agreement. –JAMES KONSTANTIN GALVEZ, Manila Times