Including tuna and tuna-like products in the World Trade Organization tariff policy on Non-Agricultural Market Access products would have adverse implications on the tuna handline sector here, a non-government organization in the fisheries sector warned.
The tuna hand line sector here under the Alliance of Tuna Handliners is composed of over 2,500 large pump boats that employ at least 40,000 fishermen, with an annual catch landing of over 30,000 metric tons of high value tuna, industry records showed.
Arsenio Tanchuling, executive director of the Tambuyog Development Center said the tuna handline sector would be hard hit once the government agrees to include tuna and other tuna-like products in the WTO tariff reduction formula on NAMA products.
“The binding of tuna will initially subject the product to a tariff reduction rate of up to 48 percent, after which further reductions will be applied until tariff is reduced to zero. This process obliges the government to cut further its already low tariffs in tuna and in turn deprive locally produced tuna of protection from cheap imported tuna,†he said in a statement last week.
Tambuyog’s concerns echo the Alliance of Tuna Handliners’ demand for the government’s exclusion of tuna from the list of NAMA items whose tariffs will be reduced under the WTO.
In an April 18, 2006 letter addressed to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, the alliance, headed by Dario Lauron, listed yellow-fin tuna, big-eye tuna, albacore and blue marlin as among those that must be excluded from the list.
Tanchuling expressed their support to the alliance’s demand since “the exclusion list would shield sensitive products from adverse impacts of WTO tariff reduction policies.â€
Tambuyog is convinced at least 85 fisheries products including tuna are in dire need of such protection since it will provide the entire fisheries industry the chance to develop in such a way that the production and processing subsectors are integrated.
“Without which, canneries and processors would become more and more dependent on highly subsidized and thus cheaper foreign products while the 1.7 million municipal fishers are further marginalized from the industry,†Tanchuling said.
He noted that due to the yearly subsidy of US $100 million in post harvest facilities and of US $1 billion of Taiwan and China, respectively, their products are cheaper, thus currently preferred by local canneries.
Tambuyog feared that since the protective mechanism of tariff is removed once tuna is subjected to WTO policies, its ultimate result is the loss of livelihood of small hand-line fishers.
“We already had a preview of this effect; when the government implemented Fisheries Administrative Order 195, the price of tuna shot down from P120 to P60 a kilo since 2003 resulting to the non-operation of 71 out of 119 fishing boats and job loss for 2,380 handline fishers in this city,†Tanchuling emphasized.
FAO 195 is a fishing ordinance that allows entry of non-export grade tunas in the course of transshipment of fish products by foreign companies.