President Rodrigo Duterte departed for South Korea Sunday night to attend the 2019 ASEAN-Republic of Korea Commemorative Summit, where he is scheduled to hold talks with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in.
READ: Duterte, Moon to meet in Busan
From Davao City, the President headed to Busan, South Korea to participate in the commemorative summit from Nov. 25 to 27 that will be attended by other Southeast Asian leaders to discuss partnership and cooperation in areas of mutual concern.
Duterte will hold talks with Moon in the afternoon on the sidelines of the summit to discuss education, trade and fisheries cooperation, said Ambassador Noe Wong, the country’s envoy to South Korea.
President Duterte said early this week that he and Moon would discuss security issues concerning the regional bloc and South Korea.
“It’s really security. And it’s obvious. It is now the equilibrium of geopolitics. You know, North Korea then the Spratly Islands. The South Koreans are also against the occupation of the South China Sea and the claim of China,” Duterte told Palace reporters Tuesday.
The members of the Philippine delegation are Cabinet Secretaries Teodoro Locsin Jr. (Foreign Affairs), Carlos Dominguez III (Finance), William Dar (Agriculture), Leonor Briones (Education), Delfin Lorenzana (Defense), Ramon Lopez (Trade), Bernadette Romulo-Puyat (Tourism), and Ernesto Pernia (Socio-economic planning).
The summit coincides with the 30th anniversary of the establishment of ties between ASEAN countries and Korea, and the 70th year of the Philippines and Korean bilateral relations.
Meanwhile, the country’s top banana growers and exporters are calling on both the South Korean and Philippine governments to immediately resolve a stalemate on the proposed reduction of tariff rates on banana shipments.
The Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association Inc. urged Manila and Seoul to work on the speedy end of the high import tariffs imposed on Philippine bananas.
Negotiations have been stuck as Korea insists on greater market access for its automotive exports to the Philippines in exchange for a lower if not zero tariffs for Philippine bananas.
“The negotiations have only started in the second quarter while the tariff rates for our competitors have been getting more and more favorable to our disadvantage,” Stephen Antig, executive director of PBGEA, in a statement on Sunday.
South Korean Ambassador to the Philippines Han Dong-man earlier said at least four cooperation agreements in the fields of social security, education, fisheries, and tourism will be signed after the two leader’s bilateral meeting.
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Department of Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary for Asean Office Affairs Junever Mahilum-West, however, said the signing of agreements between Manila and Seoul is still under negotiation.
PBGEA said they hope Duterte will raise the issue on banana import tariffs with Moon during their talks, along with other concerns in the proposed free trade agreement between the two countries.
Duterte first brought up the banana imports issue during his first state visit to Seoul in June 2018.
The initial round of talks on the bilateral FTA was held in June this year with the aim of improving trade and investment activities between the two economies.
The Department of Trade and Industry tabled its demand to lower tariffs on agriculture exports.
DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said South Korean trade officials were amenable to tariffs cut as long as the Philippines lowers import duties on industrial products, especially automotive parts.
The Philippines hopes the FTA will translate to improved market access for its agricultural products such as banana, pineapple, okra, avocado, poultry products, and mango — in exchange for Korea’s industrial goods.
Negotiators are looking at different tariff rate proposals aimed at erasing or at least narrowing the trade deficit between the Philippines and South Korea.
They initially looked at a possible conclusion of the talks this month. This may not proceed as planned because of so-called “gaps” in the mutual concessions between the parties.
READ: Busan summit: Security top item
Banana shipments to South Korean markets are taxed 30 percent. The country’s negotiators want this reduced to at least 5 percent, if not zero.
South Korea is the country’s third most important banana market, next to China and Japan.
Despite the high import tariff, banana shipments to South Korea reached 420,344 metric tons (MT) valued at $203.69 million last year, from 379,144 MT ($176.55 million) in 2017.
However, banana growers are worried that their share in the South Korean market may be reduced as Central American economies secured trade deals with Seoul that reduced, if not eliminated, tariff on their bananas.
South Korea’s trade deal with the five Central American nations took effect in October.
Talks for an FTA with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama began in June 2015 to ease duties on more than 95 percent of goods and open up the services and investment markets.
The formal agreement was inked in February 2018.
Victor Mercado Jr., PBGEA president, said the Central American bananas have been slowly eroding the market share of the Philippines.
“If this continues any further, the Philippines will not be able to compete,” he added.
For his part, Alberto Bacani, PBGEA chairman, said South Korea should also consider the special relationship with the Philippines “because of historical circumstances, particularly during the Korean War in the 1950s.” With PNA