RP explores trade deals with US, EU
Philippine Daily Inquirer | 08/02/2010
RP explores trade deals with US, EU
Easier access to foreign markets
By Abigail L. Ho
MANILA, Philippines—The government is exploring the possibility of forging a bilateral trade agreement with the United States, the Philippines’ second biggest trading partner.
Ramon Kabigting, assistant trade secretary and director of the Bureau of International Trade Relations, said that Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo would be travelling to the United States soon to pave the way for President Aquino’s state visit next month.
“President Aquino will be flying to the US in September to explore an engagement with [Washington], whether a bilateral or a cluster free-trade agreement,” he said in a speech at the 18th Metro Manila Business Conference last Friday.
Domingo earlier mentioned the country’s interest in participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a multilateral free-trade deal that involved several economies, including the United States.
“You have to be part of every trade agreement because to be excluded is a disadvantage for you. We’re not yet part of [the TPP], but at some point, I think it is our desire to join as well,” he said.
Apart from the United States, current participants in the TPP included Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
Kabigting said the Philippines is also looking at the possibility of signing a free-trade pact with the European Union.
After almost two years of negotiations, the Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between the Philippines and the EU was initialled in Brussels last June 25.
While the PCA was not equivalent to an FTA between the country and the economic bloc, it could facilitate the eventual drafting of an FTA as it provided the legal basis for cooperation between the two parties in various political and economic sectors.
“We want to penetrate these [US and EU] markets. Of course, they’ll also penetrate ours, but a balance is something that we’ll have to achieve. It will all depend on how well we negotiate and develop an infrastructure to pursue these agreements,” Kabigting said.
He cited the benefits that the country was already reaping from the implementation of other FTAs, including the Japan Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement, the Asean-Australia-New Zealand FTA, the Asean-Korea FTA and the Asean Trade in Goods Agreement.
Local businesses, he said, were now enjoying easier access to these markets.
