RP seeks lower import duties on farm products

RP seeks lower import duties on farm products

MANILA (Dow Jones): Philippine President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo said Monday that her administration will push for bilateral negotiations to reduce import duties on the country's tropical fruit exports.

Speaking before a private sector consultation at the Department of Agriculture, Arroyo said the reduction of import duties on the country's agricultural exports is one of the policy reforms that the government will be pushing to spur growth in the sector.

Luis Lorenzo, chairman and chief executive order of Lapanday Holdings Corp., one of the largest fruit exporters in the country, said the move to lower import duties on farm products could in turn generate employment in the countryside.

He said that if the government can open up the market to destinations with strict import requirements, such as Australia and the U.S., it would be easy to create new jobs.

Arroyo earlier vowed to generate 1 million jobs in the agriculture sector within three years.

Lorenzo said China, for example, imposes an official 25 percent import duty on Philippine bananas. However, an additional 17 percent duty on a base value of $242 a metric ton makes Philippine bananas in China less competitive compared to those from other countries.

Import risk analysis, or IRA, is being conducted by Biosafety Australia on Philippine bananas and pineapples.

While both IRAs were filed in June last year, the IRA for pineapple is scheduled for completion in October while that for banana will be finished in July, 2001.

The import risk analysis is a precondition for the entry of the Philippine fruit into the Australian market.