Warning of the “life-or-death” situation of the country’s banana exports, Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda on Sunday, Oct. 23, asked President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who also sits as Agriculture secretary, to push for zero tariffs for bananas in Japan.

With Japan as the Philippines’ main market for banana exports and a leading ally of the country, the lawmaker hopes it would allow for zero taxes or duties on bananas.

“There is one single, most important, most immediate effort for the country’s domestic banana sector: zero tariffs for Philippine bananas in Japan, our strategic partner,” he said in a statement.

Salceda, also the chair of the House Ways and Means, lamented how the country’s banana sector was impacted by “disease, global competition, investor flight, and climate change.”

“If we don’t act on the problems of the sector, we will lose our dominance over bananas in Asia by 2030. Climate change and disease are existential threats to the sector. But relatively high tariffs in our main banana markets, high input costs, and competition from other players are killing the sector by slow but steady strangulation,” the lawmaker added.

He cited that Japan has already slashed tariff to zero for Mexico, Peru, Cambodia, and Laos, while Laos and Cambodia are already becoming emerging sources of banana exports after Filipino farmers were “pirated” in these farms.

And while the Philippines’ effective tariff rate for bananas remains at 8

percent to 13 percent, Vietnam’s tariff rate had been lowered to 8 percent and will be zero by 2028.

But despite these countries experiencing less typhoons and fewer disruptions in the agricultural process, they are also “arguably less important as a geostrategic partner for Japan than the Philippines is.”

“So, I think morally and geopolitically, we can strongly argue for zero tariffs for Philippine bananas in Japan. I ask PBBM to place this atop his priorities in discussions with the Japanese government,” Salceda said as he underscored the importance of agricultural exports as a “lifeline” during economic turmoils.

Pre-pandemic, the Philippines exported roughly $2 billion in bananas. By 2021, it declined to just over $1 billion.