Barter trade between Tawi-Tawi and Sabah to resume in January

DAVAO CITY – Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Executive Director Romeo Montenegro disclosed that the decades-old practice of cross border trading between merchants from Tawi-Tawi and Sabah, Malaysia will resume January 2019, following the pronouncement of Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal that it would open its border for barter trading after it was banned in 2016.

Montenegro said in an interview that they were just waiting for the issuance of the Executive Order from Malacañang that was drafted by the Department of Trade and Industry which would set the guidelines for the barter trading.

“If there are some restrictions to certain items, by next year then, we’re looking at better flowing of commodities via barter trade with that announcement,” he said.

He added the East Kalimantan province of Indonesia will also explore the possibility of joining the barter trade arrangement.

“The East Kalimantan is also looking at being actively engaged in the barter trading so the barter trading later on is not just limited to Tawi-Tawi and Sandakan (Sabah),” he added.

He said small informal traders will benefit from this because “they don’t have to fear of being apprehended, pursued, or abused because they are mainstreamed into the economic arrangement.”

He added the resumption of the barter trade will allow businessmen and merchants in Taw-Tawi to purchase cheaper commodities from Sandakan, Sabah because if “they are forced to source out commodities from mainland Zamboanga, it would be three times more expensive.”

Transport ministers of the 10country Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) will sign next month a memorandum of understanding (MOU), allowing non-conventional size ships, including wooden boats, to cross the maritime borders of the countries within the region, he said.

Montenegro said that all 5-tonnage boats and less, even the wooden vessels, can continue plying the seas within the ASEAN area once the MOU is signed.

He said this was originally proposed at the level of the transport ministers of the Brunei Darrusalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) years ago, but the proposal was later adopted by the ASEAN as a whole.

“What originally started as a BIMP-EAGA initiative many, many years ago is now going to be adopted in ASEAN so what this means is that once that particular agreement is signed by transport ministers, the NCSS or the less than 5 tonnage vessels, the wooden vessels, are now recognized as a standard therefore they can continue to ply, cross broader,” he said.

He said the International Maritime Organization (IMO), in January this year, mandated the transition of all non-steel hull vessels to steel vessels, more particularly to vessels traversing major seas.

But he said BIMP-EAGA officials argued that maritime boundaries in sub-regions were within short distances and can be traversed with the use of smaller vessels, even the wooden boats of local fishermen.

He added fisher folks and small traders engaged in cross border trading would benefit from this development.