PHILIPPINES APPLAUDS DEFEAT OF U.S. LABELLING BILL The Philippine coconut industry has greeted with relief the defeat in the U.S. Senate of a bill requiring some edible oils to be labelled as saturated fats. The bill, which was defeated by the Senate Agriculture Committee on Monday, could have cost about 60 mln dlrs a year in lost exports, the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) said. "Naturally, we welcomed the defeat but there is a chance the bill will be resurrected and attached as a rider to another Senate bill," a spokesman for the United Coconut Association of the Philippines (UCAP). PCA chairman Jose Romero noted the vote was close, with eight senators voting for it, 10 against and one abstaining. The UCAP spokesman said the American Soybean Association (ASA) had spent about 25 mln dlrs lobbying for the bill. He said the ASA also had obscured the health issue during the debate. "Coconut oil is high in saturated fats, but unlike saturated animal fats, they do not enter the blood and lymph systems leaving fatty deposits connected to heart disease," he said. U.S. Soybean and cottonseed producers had argued that saturated fats cause heart disease and that the labels would discourage consumption by health conscious consumers in favour of domestic unsaturated alternatives. Opponents of the bill said the proposal discriminated against imports and would damage the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. The Philippines earned 488 mln dlrs from coconut products in 1986, up from 477 mln in 1985, UCAP figures show. Exports to the United States for edible and non-edible use account for about half of that total, PCA's Romero said.