Seaweed group urges inclusion of carrageenan in US GSP list

The Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines (SIAP) is urging the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to push for the inclusion of carrageenan in the US Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) despite attempts of its US competitor FMC Marine Colloids to block its application.

"The industry wants to participate in the US-GSP program and benefit from its incentives and we strongly suggest the submission of the official Philippine application at the earliest possible time to the US government," SIAP president Benson Dakay said in a letter to Trade Undersecretary Thomas G. Aquino.

Dakay implied in his letter that the DTI should not be pressured into talking the Department of Environment and Natural Resources into reversing its earlier order for FMC to clean up the Mactan Channel in Cebu (which it allegedly polluted by discharging untreated wastewater) in exchange for the granting of a slot for carrageenan in this year’s US-GSP list to be submitted by the DTI to the US Trade Representative Office in Washington, DC.

Industry sources claimed that FMC president Tim Eberly, other company officials and unnamed US embassy officials in Manila, recently sought a dialogue with Aquino in a bid to persuade the DENR to reconsider its earlier order which included the installation of transparent upstream waste discharge pipes to replace existing submarine pipes.

"The FMC with the help of some embassy officials, has been lobbying to block SIAP’s application for inclusion in the US-GSP until the latter drops the pollution charges it filed against the US seaweed processor," an industry observer said.

Dakay however said "it is of utmost urgency and importance that a technical and not a legal decision must cover the end-game in this issue."

He was reacting to an earlier report that FMC was threatening to bring the issue to the Court of Appeals to try and overturn the DENR’s decision.

SIAP said the DTI should be able to separate the GSP concern from the pollution issue against FMC.