Saturday, November 17, 2007 Tuna industry to benefit from RP-Japan trade pact
RATIFICATION by the Senate of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) gained the support of local tuna industry leaders in General Santos City.
Marfenio Tan, president of the Socsksargen Federation of Fishing and Allied Industries, Inc., said the tuna industry as well as other maritime products will benefit from the bilateral trade agreement.
But Tan raised two major points that shall move the Senate to approve the trade deal signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Helsinki, Finland in September 2006.
"First, it (JPEPA) should lead to the lifting of the ban on smoked tuna products to Japan. Secondly, it should be ensured that the Philippines would not be a dumping ground of toxic wastes from Japan," he said in a telephone interview.
"If the ban on smoked tuna products will not be lifted, the trade deal is no good," added Tan, whose federation counts as members seven organizations involved in the fisheries industry.
The ban on frozen filtered smoked tuna started when the Japan Kouseisho (Department of Health and Welfare) implemented restrictions on the importation, production and sale of frozen smoked tuna, hamachi (yellowtail) and tilapia in 1997 due to health reasons.
According to the Kouseisho, frozen smoked tuna products contain carbon monoxide that allegedly prevents color-deterioration in red meat fish species, leading consumers to err on their perception of the freshness of fish meat.
Requests for Japan to lift the ban have been raised in various national tuna congresses here but Tan lamented it has fallen on deaf ears.
The frozen filtered smoked tuna sector is a vital component of the local tuna industry, having an annual export value of at least $50 million and provides employment to about 80,000 workers, processors and fishermen nationwide.
Hoping that the JPEPA could put an end to such trade barrier, Tan is looking forward to its ratification, provided also the assurance on environmental protection, "since only the Philippines has no economic pact with Japan among Asean countries."
JPEPA envisions a free trade agreement and other components covering services, investment, human resources development and other forms of cooperation between the Philippines and Japan.
But it must be ratified by the Philippine Senate and Japanese Diet before it can take effect. The Diet approved the treaty in December.
On the other hand, Rogelio Lim Sr., vice president of the Alliance of Tuna Handliners, called for the abolition of the Japanese auction market for tuna products, as a precondition for the ratification of Jpepa.
Lim claimed the auction market does not ensure "a fair or stable income" to producers of large tuna because sometimes the price fluctuates.
The Alliance of Tuna Handliners is composed of over 2,500 large pump boats that employ at least 40,000 fishermen, with an annual landing catch of over 30,000 metric tons of high value tuna worth P4.5 billion. They are engaged in the catching of large or mature tuna.
Lim also said that fresh/chilled whole round tuna that did not undergo smoking process is slapped 13 percent tariff in Japan, while the same enjoys zero tariff in the United States.
Owing to this, Lim, who admitted having limited knowledge of Jpepa, said he has export preference to the United States than Japan, sending at the former one to three tons daily of fresh/chilled whole round tuna. (BSS)
