The Philippines has renewed its call for Japan to remove tariffs on fresh bananas, as Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. met with Japanese Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi to boost trade and technology cooperation.

Tiu Laurel said over the weekend that the banana tariff issue was among the key topics raised during the bilateral meeting.

He noted that Koizumi promised to look into the matter, while the Philippines intends to pursue the issue persistently in hopes of reaching a resolution soon.

“The Minister promised to look into it. I told him the Philippines will persistently pursue this. I really hope we can resolve this issue as soon as possible,” Tiu Laurel said.

Bilateral deals to ease tariff woes

“But of course they have their position. The Philippines is also going through the avenue CEPT…on duty-free to Japan. But it might take time, a few years to complete. So we are looking at the angle of bilateral agreements to speed up the process,” he added.

Philippine bananas currently face tariffs of up to 18 percent. Despite being Japan’s top supplier, the country’s market share fell to 75 percent in 2024 from 94 percent in 2023.

Japan, the Philippines’ second-largest importer of agricultural and fishery products, with over $1 billion in purchases last year, is also seeking to export fresh grapes to the Philippines.

Koizumi said Japan has submitted a pest risk analysis and technical documents to the Bureau of Plant Industry to support the request.

Tiu Laurel welcomed Japan’s continued support under the ASEAN-Midori Cooperation Plan and the Philippines-Japan Memorandum of Cooperation on Agriculture, proposing to expand it to cover fisheries and technical projects that will modernize and digitalize the sector.

Both sides also discussed the Joint Crediting Mechanism, which promotes Alternate Wetting and Drying technology for rice farming and could become the world’s first bilateral carbon credit program in agriculture.