Philippines: Exporters press free trade pacts
Malaya, Philippines, 8 February 2006
Exporters press free trade pacts
Exporters are pressing the government to pursue bilateral free trade arrangements to enable them to benefit from liberalization instead of waiting until 2013 for developed countries to lift their subsidies on agricultural exports.
Meanwhile, businessmen bat for selective liberalization of the local services sector.
Speaking at Stakeholders Briefing and Workshop on Post-Hong Kong WTO Ministerial Conference at the Heritage Hotel yesterday, Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport) president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said bilateral pacts can be speedily arranged with the US and the Netherlands.
Ortiz-Luis noted that Netherlands is the only country in Europe where Philippine exports are growing.
The Philexport chief also noted that negotiations on tariff reductions on non-agricultural market access (NAMA) or industrial goods as well as the agreements on trade in services could take years.
The WTO at the last ministerial in Hong Kong agreed on an April deadline to draft the rules on NAMA and a July deadline to consolidate them.
"But those drafts will be subject to further debate before global consensus is reached, ministers sign it and governments ratify the new agreement. It will take years before these will become working trading rules," he said.
"We believe that that the economic future of the Philippines is closely intertwined with that of rest of continental Asia. With rapidly expanding trade and investments between China and Asean and Japan and the Asean members, East Asia is rapidly becoming one common production line and market," Ortiz-Luis said.
He said the Philippines must play a more active role in ongoing and future trade talks between Asean and key economies in the region like Japan, South Korea, India, New Zealand and Australia.
PCCI president Donald Dee for his part said the Philippines has to preserve its niche in services by exercising flexibilities and push for voluntary liberalization.
Dee said the Philippines should zero in on further liberalization on service areas of interest to our labor market such as business process outsourcing, healthcare, tourism while ensuring non-discriminatory basis for other services like nursing, engineering, maritime, caregiving, accounting and law.
