AGRICULTURE Secretary Arthur Yap will fly to
the United States this March to try to expand markets for
Philippine products.
Yap said his visit was upon the invitation of
acting US Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner when he was in
Washington D.C. last November for the Coral Triangle Initiative
meeting.
Yap said Conner told him to bring a
commercial and trade delegation to promote Philippine
agricultural products.
Yap said the US remains the top destination
for Philippine agricultural exports, with sales reaching
$542.348 million or 23.33 percent of exports for the first eight
months of 2007.
He said the US is the top buyer of Philippine
coconut (copra) oil, desiccated coconuts, preserved pineapples,
dried mango and mango juice, carrageen, and tuna.
Yap said he, Conner, US trade representative
Susan Schwab and Department of State deputy assistant secretary
Scot Marciel discussed a proposed free trade agreement and the
Philippines’ bid to allow the entry of bananas in the US market.
The US bars entry of Philippine bananas until
it has completed its pest risk analysis for the product. The
entry of Philippine bananas into the US market is estimated to
boost exports by $6 million annually.
Yap said he and US Ambassador Kristie Kenney
discussed his trade mission last Nov. 29.
"We are planning on how to come up with a
very good agenda and a very good delegation to Washington in
March," he said.
He said he briefed Kenney on his meetings
with Schwab and Conner, who had assured him of the speedy
processing of the pest risk analysis for Philippine bananas.
DA Undersecretary Bernie Fondevilla updated
Kenney on the 14 US-assisted agricultural, fishery and
biotechnology projects with a combined worth of over P7.7
billion that have either been completed, are underway or due for
implementation this year.
As part of the Official Development Assistance of the United
States for Philippine agriculture, five projects worth over P5
billion have already been completed, six others costing more
than P1.7 billion are ongoing and three more projects with a
combined funding of almost P887 million are due for
implementation this year. – Job Realubit
