Impact of EU trade pact studied
BusinessWorld, Manila
Impact of EU trade pact studied
29 July 2012
The government will soon start consultations to identify sectors that stand to gain or lose from a free trade agreement with the European Union (EU), a senior official told reporters on Friday.
Trade Undersecretary Adrian S. Cristobal, Jr. said such “scoping” will be based on research of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies that “will be finished next month”.
“The study actually will determine the sectors that could be impacted by a potential trade agreement,” Mr. Cristobal, Jr. said, adding the government will be “doing our own internal scoping, meaning inter-government agency studies, impact studies and consultations with stakeholders.”
The Philippines and the European Union signed last July 11 a partnership and cooperation agreement, a wide-ranging framework for more specific pacts like the one for free trade.
MISSIONS PLANNED
In the meantime, the private sector is moving ahead to forge closer ties with counterparts from Europe and Latin America, the head of the country’s biggest business chamber told reporters on Thursday last week.
Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) President Miguel B. Varela said his group has invited counterparts from these areas for a trade mission in October. “So far, there are around 10 countries [sic] that have agreed to participate...from Europe and Latin America including Russia. We asked them which sectors they are interested in and we will conduct business-matching exercises,” Mr. Varela said.
Before that, the chamber will send a mission to still-undetermined Latin American markets in September, he added.
Mr. Varela said he expects missions to highlight opportunities in manufacturing; semiconductor production, tourism and other services; as well as the public-private partnership program.
“These countries are finding the Philippines on their radar and are attracted by what we can offer,” Trade Undersecretary Cristino L. Panlilio said in a separate interview on Friday last week, noting that Brazil, Argentina and Panama “are interested in our mining, agriculture and business process outsourcing.”
