Bangus raisers seek exclusion from WTO’s NAMA coverage

Milkfish (bangus) producers are asking the Philippine negotiators in the World Trade Organization (WTO) for the exclusion of the milkfish fry hatchery sub-sector from the current negotiations on non-agricultural market access agreement (NAMA).

The Bangus Council of the Philippines (BCP), in a letter to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and Department of Agriculture (DA), warned the milkfish hatchery subsector will collapse if subjected to low and almost zero tariffs because there are no existing safeguard measures to protect the industry.

Jaime Montalvo, alternate representative of BCP said the exclusion of "milkfish fry" from the NAMA is critical to the survival not only of the hatchery sector but the entire gamut of the milkfish industry.

The BCP said the milkfish hatchery industry which supplies 40 to 50 percent of the milkfish industry’s requirements, has invested heavily in putting up infrastructure to raise production capacity which would all go to waste with the influx of imported bangus fry.

Moreover, marginalized fisherfolks which are already losing their seasonal income from catching wild fry due to the collapse of local milkfish fry prices, will further be squeezed from the market due to imports.

"The hatchery subsector is currently looking into measures that will eventually allow the fisherfolks to be integrated in the process of hatching eggs, rearing and trading milkfish fry. But with the entry of fry imports, we will both lose," said Montalvo.

On the other hand, Montalvo stressed that exempting the bangus fry subsector from the NAMA talks will not only benefit milkfish hatcheries but also millions of municipal fishers who acquire seasonal income from wild fry gathering.

Previously, Tambuyog Development Center (TDC), a fishery non-government organization, demanded the exclusion of 87 fishery products, including bangus fry, from the NAMA tariff binding and reduction formula.

Arsenio Tanchuling, TDC executive director, stated that said products should be part of the sensitive list that must remain unbound from WTO.

"Binding these 87 products would only result to loss of livelihood for three million municipal and commercial fishers who depend on these products," he said.

The local fisheries sector will be one of the hardest hit industries with government’s adoption of a WTO policy that will translate into deeper tariff cuts for industrial and non-agricultural products.

Under the so-called Swiss formula which the country’s WTO negotiators have accepted, the local fishing industry, particularly the small fishermen, will be thrown out by heavily-subsidized foreign competition.

Tanchuling said the Swiss formula being worked out under the non-market agricultural access (NAMA) talks will effectively reduce current tariff on NAMA products of developing countries by 48 percent while developed countries’ cut will only be 28 percent. The fisheries sector was lumped in the NAMA negotiations.

"While the principle of the Swiss formula is that higher tariffs will be subjected to deeper tariff reductions, this would put the fishery sector at a disadvantageous position because our existing tariff rates are already very low at seven percent," said Tanchuling.

This would displace subsistence fishermen already reeling from competition by foreign commercial fishing fleets dumping both capture fisheries and aquaculture products such as salmon, mackerel, bangus or milkfish and tilapia.

TDC is pushing for the country’s negotiators to raise the current five percent flexibilities or exclusions of sensitive fishery products adopted by the government to 10 percent. This would raise the number of products exempted from tariff cuts from 253 to 506.

"In the fisheries sector, we have identified 87 product lines that are unbound or not yet committed to tariff cuts, what we want is to increase the number so that more locally-produced, sensitive fish products caught by subsistence fishermen will be given tariff protection and shielded from fish import surges if the government commits to bind more non-agricultural products," said Tanchuling.