Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said the Philippines may buy more beef products from Argentina, Brazil and the United States.
Piñol said Argentina would soon start exporting quality beef to the Philippines after the department accredited three companies as meat exporters.
“In exchange, Argentina is keenly looking at importing coconut products, carageenan and other agricultural products from the Philippines,” said Piñol.
He said beef imports from the US will also be encouraged because of America’s favorable trade incentives to Philippine agricultural producers.
Piñol said a team from the Philippines was flying to Brazil to validate the sanitary and phytosanitary protocols being implemented by meat exporting companies following reports of salmonella presence in some exported meat to the Philippines.
The DA chief said Brazil had a cattle population of 213 million while Argentina had 52 million.
Piñol said Australia was the biggest exporter of beef and live cattle to the Philippines.
“Australia, however, has been very protective of its fruit sector and has refused to allow the entry of bananas into the country citing SPS issues which definitely have no basis because Philippine bananas are exported to Japan, South Korea, China and prospectively Eastern Europe,” said Piñol.
“While there will be no efforts to restrict the entry of Australian beef and live cattle into the Philippines because it would violate trade agreements, the Philippine market would be made accessible to trading partners who treat Philippine agricultural producers fairly by allowing access to their markets,” added Piñol.
He said a delegation will be visiting Brazil and Argentina in December in time for another round of negotiations in the World Trade Organization.
