PH seeks fair agri trade with Indonesia

Credit to Author: EIREENE JAIREE GOMEZ| Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2019 16:21:54 +0000

Officials from the Department of Agriculture (DA) are set to meet anew their Indonesian counterparts to discuss ways to boost the presence of Filipino agricultural products in the Indonesian market.

This, despite the fruitless negotiation recently held by the two countries, which was supposed to correct the trade imbalance heavily favoring Indonesia.

In an interview on Monday, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said, “It was like that they were not really ready to open up their markets so our negotiators came home downhearted,” Piñol said.

Last month, officials from the DA International Affairs Division negotiated with their Indonesian counterparts to “drastically” correct the trade deficit of about $950 million. They also asked Indonesian officials to relax their restrictive export requirements which have made it difficult for Philippine agricultural products to enter the Indonesian market.

The meeting, however, was “not very good, ” Piñol said. “But we’re not giving up. We’re pursuing,” he added.

He said the DA is eyeing to gain market access to all commodities in Indonesia, particularly shallots and tobacco. Presently, the Philippines’ main export product to Indonesia is palm oil.

Recently, Piñol proposed to impose safeguard duties on refined palm oil following a sharp increase in imports from Indonesia and Malaysia.

He suggested that the volume of importation of palm olein and other oil products be reviewed with the possible imposition of quantitative restriction.

“They are exporting to our country to about $1 billion worth of goods [while] we’re only exporting to about $50 million every year,” said Piñol.

Pinol said the DA will hold another meeting with their Indonesian counterparts to present possible measures that would yield fair agribusiness trade between the two countries.

“In this business actually, you have to be tenacious. you have to be persevering. We just have to keep on knocking on their door and hope that one day they will find a special [market for our products],” Piñol said.

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