Philippines launches last-minute bid to join new Asia-Pacific FTA
InterAksyon, Philippines
Philippines launches last-minute bid to join new Asia-Pacific FTA
By Chelsea Cruz, InterAksyon.com
29 January 2014
MANILA - Officials of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will hold talks with their US counterparts within the next two months in a last-minute bid to join discussions for a free-trade area (FTA) in the Asia-Pacific region.
"The talks are preliminary. It is for us to find out what’s going on and what are the standards of the agreement," Trade Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal Jr. told a press conference today.
"There is mutual interest to be on the same FTA," he said, referring to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), discussions for which are on the homestretch.
Apart from the US, countries that are party to the TPP talks are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo said the Philippine panel will seek leniency among the TPP participants in the matter of the country’s Constitutional restrictions on foreign investments.
"We will just have to negotiate so we will not have to do that," Domingo said, referring to amendments to the Constitution.
He said the Philippine panel will cite the case of Singapore, which also bars foreigners from owning land.
The US-Philippines Society, which is an organization of Filipino and American businessmen, had said Manila’s success in joining the TPP would hinge on lifting the Constitutional restrictions on foreign ownership.
President Benigno Aquino III however has ruled out any Charter change during his term.
