Department of Trade and Industry Strives to Increase the PH’s Free Trade Agreements

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) plans to increase the Philippines’ foreign trade agreements to attract more investors into the country, affirmed Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual during the recent Economic Briefing between the Philippines and Singapore. At the moment, the Philippines only has 10 free trade agreements (FTAs) compared to Singapore’s over 20 FTAs.

“Other countries in the neighborhood have about more than what we have in the Philippines, so I’m working on that,” Pascual noted. To add to the country’s FTAs, DTI hopes to secure another agreement with South Korea by November. Earlier in October 2021, Manila and Seoul settled two years’ worth of negotiations thereby concluding FTA talks between the two countries.

The negotiations with South Korea covered significant trade matters. These included Trade in Goods, Trade Remedies, Rules of Origin, Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation, Economic and Technical Cooperation, Competition, and Legal and Institutional Issues. The two countries also signed an Early Achievement Package in November 2019 to map out the progress of trade negotiations.

Pascual added that they are “working very hard to get Senate ratification of RCEP [Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership].” This is considered to be the world’s largest free trade agreement. It covers the ASEAN countries along with relevant trading partners such as Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea.

Furthermore, the country is currently engaging with the European Union (EU) regarding the renewal of the Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) which will expire by the end of 2023. The “special incentive arrangement” grants the Philippines enhanced trade preferences, allowing the country to export products to EU countries without tariffs.

Pascual concluded that the DTI “has 22 trade investment centers spread across the world in 22 countries.” The trade chief hopes that these trade investment centers will aid in growing the country’s FTAs. He added that potential investors often visit these centers to “do intensive follow-up,” expressing their keen interest in the Philippines.

Source: BusinessMirror