Japan urged to scrap tariff on Philippines bananas

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is once again asking the Japanese government to impose a zero percent duty on banana exports.

“I would like to request your support for the preferential tariff rate of zero percent for Philippine bananas in Japan, which currently imposes 18 percent tariff during the winter season and eight percent during the summer,” Agriculture Secretary William Dar said in a bilateral meeting with Japan Vice Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shinya Fujiki.

Japan is currently one of the countries where imported bananas from the Philippines are taxed heavily. It used to be the largest importer of Philippine bananas for nearly three decades until China took over after buying more than 1.1 million metric tons last year.

Last June, former agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol said Japan had softened on long-standing issues on banana tariffs and market access for Philippine agricultural products during President Duterte’s visit.

The Philippines sought for a uniform tariff for Philippine agricultural products of up to eight percent all year round.

Philippine bananas used to dominate the Japanese market supplying as much as 90 percent of the total requirements but in recent years, bananas from Ecuador had penetrated Japan.

Other matters that Dar tabled during the meeting included the Philippines’ request for updates on the market access for Hass avocados and the accreditation of Philippines as foot-and-mouth disease-free country.

Among the issues that Japan raised include the elimination of tariff on Japanese rice, and market access of Japanese strawberries in the Philippines.

The Philippines also reaffirmed its commitment to actively engage with China, Japan, and Korea and lauded the three countries in terms of the assistance that they have continuously provided.

Japan recently provided 560 metric tons of rice under the Tier 3 Program of the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR).

APTERR, as a regional food security cooperation scheme among nations, is extremely beneficial to countries, including the Philippines, which are vulnerable to many hazards and natural calamities due to topography and geographic location.