Lopsided

While President Duterte was visiting in Seoul, it was probably impolitic to publicly raise the inconvenient issues attending our bilateral relationship with South Korea.

After all, Seoul was being extremely generous. South Korea, in a new framework agreement with us, doubled the level of official development assistance from $500 million during the previous administration to $1 billion today. They have given us grants to improve the equipment used by the PNP and to support our tax monitoring.

In addition, investments amounting to about $4.5 billion have been signed and sealed. These business ventures should open up hundreds of thousands of quality jobs in the country.

All these reflect South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s “southward policy.” It is a strategic reorientation to build closer relations with Southeast Asian and other Pacific Rim countries intended to allow South Korea to reduce its dependence on China and Japan. South Korea’s relationship with the two economic giants has been burdened with historical baggage and a large dose of distrust.

Looking beyond her immediate East Asian neighbors, the Philippines should be South Korea’s most promising partnership. We are close enough so that we have become a major tourist destination for Korean tourists. There are enough topological differences between us to allow for complementarities. We have a fast growing economy actively wooing Korean investments.

But there are many issues to sort out, mainly in low-key technical working groups. These issues relate to the grossly lopsided trade relationship in favor of South Korea.

South Korea is an industrial powerhouse in the mold of the other export juggernauts of East Asia: China, Japan and Taiwan. Korean industrial products and electronics are omnipresent in the Philippine market.

The country’s export dominance reflects in the trade numbers. We imported $8.07 billion worth of Korean products while exporting only $2.54 billion to Korea.

Korea, of course, is our largest tourist market. That somehow offsets the yawning trade deficit.

Because of the large tourist inflow from Korea, we have sounded out the Seoul government for possible grants for ensuring the ecological sustainability of our tourism areas.

Bananas

Much of our exports to Korea are made up of copper, integrated circuits, semiconductors, electrical transformers and bananas.

Once upon a time, the Philippines enjoyed near-monopoly of the Korean tropical fruit market. Our market share, and consequently the value of our exports, has been declining of late. The reason for this, according to our banana producers, is the hefty 30 percent tariffs imposed by Korea on our fruit exports.

The hefty tariffs imposed on Philippine bananas baffles our local producers. Within the framework of the ASEAN-Korea Free Trade Agreement, no restrictive tariffs should be imposed to encourage more intensive trade among our economies.

The reason the Philippine share of the Korean tropical fruit market has been declining is that other countries enjoy only marginal tariffs. Colombia, for instance, successfully negotiated a deal with South Korea where its tropical fruit exports will be imposed a mere six percent tariff in the first year and zero tariffs in the second year. As a result, Colombian fruit exports to Korea turn out cheaper even if they have to be shipped over longer distances.

Vietnam, Guatemala, Ecuador, Honduras and Costa Rica do not only enjoy low and gradually descending tariffs for their fruit exports, they will be granted zero tariffs by 2022. This will render Philippine fruit exports completely uncompetitive and will cause massive layoffs in our plantations.

Most of these plantations are in Mindanao. It is imaginable that they start shedding jobs even before the first president from Mindanao ends his term.

It is useful to note that while Korea imposed a punitive tariff rate on our fruit exports, we allow the tariff-free entry of Korean fruit exports such as persimmon and pears. All we should negotiate for is reciprocity.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez had announced that his agency has initiated talks with several countries to improve access for our exports. The President’s visit to Korea earlier this week was a perfect opportunity to raise our concerns with the highest Korean policy-makers.

Our banana producers trust that the Trade Secretary did exactly that. Although our fruit exports may not account for the billions in value of high technology goods moving in the market, so many agricultural workers depend on market access for their livelihood.

Kiss

First of all, it was not even a kiss. It was a playful peck at best, although it brought much joy to Filipino workers assembled in Seoul.

But the joyless among us wanted to elevate the incident to the level of an earthshaking scandal. They called the kiss an act of misogyny. Street protesters were hysterical, burning photos of the kiss during a demonstration. The response was disproportional and politically animated.

Both the CNN and BBC carried the story in their online editions for a while, mainly out of a reflex to hammer Duterte for any reason possible. Eventually, they realized the ridiculousness of it all and dropped the story. It was not even an indiscretion and surely it wasn’t news.

In the end, the bellyaching of people like Sen. Hontiveros notwithstanding, everyone realized it was much ado over nothing. Their hypocritical hysteria was contrived.

The more substantial elements of Duterte’s Seoul sojourn are surely of much more consequence to the lives of our people. We have forged a much closer partnership with a rising industrial power. Billions of dollars in new investments are coming in and so many quality jobs will be created.

Let’s all keep our eyes on the ball.