Banana growers seek talks over South Korea tariff

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s banana industry is calling on the government to immediately pursue bilateral talks with South Korea on the unresolved tariff rates so as not to lose one of the country’s top market destinations.

The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA) urged Malacañang to initiate negotiations for the removal of the 30-percent levy slapped on Philippine cavendish bananas.

“Although we’re not intentionally undermining the importance of negotiations with our other trade partners, we’re still urging Malacañang to immediately and seriously look at the plight of the country’s second-largest agricultural export being charged with atrociously high import tariffs in South Korea,” PBGEA Stephen Antig said.

PBGEA’s call came after the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) raised the possibility of forging a bilateral preferential trading Arrangement (PTA) with South Korea to improve market access for the country’s banana exports.

Antig said the industry would fully cooperate with Philippine trade representatives to draft a mutually beneficial proposal that will be submitted to Seoul.

The government is already considering the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as a possible instrument for the lowering of duties.

The RCEP is a free trade agreement forged by ASEAN member-countries with six partners including Korea, China, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand.

“The route of RCEP will be far too long and circuitous. Multilateral discussions on this trade pact started in 2012 and are still going on,” Antig said.

“We cannot afford to wait while this happens. This issue must be immediately taken up on a bilateral basis and must be specific to bananas,” he said.

“Peru banana exporters have been enjoying zero tariff as early as 2015. By 2020, other suppliers like Colombia will enjoy zero tariff while Philippine bananas are still imposed a 30 percent tariff,” Antig added.

PBGEA is worried that if this continues, the country could lose significant market share.

Trade between the Philippines and South Korea remains lopsided in favor of the East Asian country year after year.

South Korean exports to the Philippines reached $10.6 billion last year while Philippine exports to Korea amounted to only $3.7 billion.

PBGEA earlier warned that the Philippines stands to lose about P8 billion in revenues from bananas if tariffs of the exported commodity will not be scrapped.

Data from the group showed that the Philippines may lose about P1.6 billion in annual export revenue and an additional P6.5 billion in foregone local and national tax revenues.

This is seen to affect 32,000 workers and over 200,000 dependents in the domestic industry of their means of livelihood.

South Korea represents a market of 30 million boxes for Philippine bananas from a production area of 8,000 hectares or a total of 390,000 metric tons.