DA seeks sp’l tariff rates for RP marine products

The Department of Agriculture (DA) will seek a special and differential (SND) treatment for Philippine marine products to shield the local industry from the entry of cheap fish imports.

Segfredo Serrano, DA assistant secretary for planning and head of the department’s negotiating team at the World Trade Organization (WTO), said developing countries should be given flexibility in deciding the extent of tariff reductions on imported fish and marine products.

"We want an SND fishery provision as a part of the general rule of the negotiations. It should not only be an afterthought or a residual," he said.

However, the DA’s proposal will be difficult to push because developed nations like the US and the European Union already stated their opposition to the concept and also junked bids to have separate rules for the poor and rich member-countries of the WTO.

The DA submitted its position in a recent public hearing conducted by the Tariff Commission on the planned reduction of tariffs on non-agricultural products as part of the Philippine government’s commitment to the Doha Development Round of the WTO.

Serrano said the DA is also questioning why the tariff talks on fish and marine products were lumped with the discussions on non-agricultural products. Fishery products were listed with footwear, jewelry, chemicals, machinery and other industrial items under the non-agriculture market access (NAMA) agreement of the WTO.

The tariff reduction program covering these products is part of the on-going negotiations on NAMA under the Doha development agenda of the WTO. Currently, the country charges a tariff of three to seven percent on imported fish and marine products.

A non-government organization in the fisheries sector, the Tambuyog Development Center (TDC), earlier urged government to recall its position and instead, raise tariffs to 15 percent to protect the local fish sector. TDC added that the planned tariff reductions on fishery imports would violate Section 61 of the Fisheries Code or Republic Act 8550, which sets quantitative restrictions on fishery imports.

Dinna Umengan, advocacy officer of TDC, said only big players in the aquaculture sector such as feed millers and prawn growers and the tuna canneries will not benefit from the zero tariffs.

Umengan said that while the government is giving these sub-sectors tariff concessions because prawn and tuna are leading exports and dollar earners, no support is extended to the municipal fisheries sub-sector, which consists of 70 percent of the total labor force in the domestic fisheries industry.

She urged the government to backtrack on its plan because tariffs, she said, are one of a few sources of revenues for programs that will develop the competitiveness of the fisherfolk in accordance with the mandate of the Fisheries Code.