RP business seeks govt line to free trade deals

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) on Monday said the government has to step up explaining the advantages of free trade agreements or FTAs to the private sector.

“If we want to fully maximize the gains and benefits of these agreements, we need to have coherent and proactive strategies” that will present the benefits of FTAs, PCCI vice chairman Donald Dee said.

The Philippines has FTAs with Australia, New Zealand, China, Korea, and Japan. It has also a bilateral deal with Japan via the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement.

Dee said FTAs would be beneficial to the agriculture and industrial sectors, which include electronics, garments, automotive, and transportation parts and equipments.

The liberalized services sector and the various investments provisions in FTAs are also expected to advance Philippine competitiveness, he added.

Lagging behind

But the country is lagging behind its trading partners in taking advantage of FTAs, according to an Asian Development Bank (ADB) study.

The ADB said the country’s FTA utilization rate was only 28 percent in the 2007-2008 period, way behind China’s 45 percent — the highest FTA utilization rate in Asia.

Other Asian countries with high FTA utilization rates are Japan, Thailand, and Malaysia, the ADB noted.

The PCCI said the government should enhance the country’s FTAs through information dissemination.

“We have to make sure that [businessmen] are not left behind in terms of information,” PCCI president Francis Chua said.

The need to come up with extensive information drive on how to maximize FTAs are expected to be part of the PCCI’s policy recommendations in a 10-point agenda that will be presented to President Benigno Aquino III at the culmination of the 36th Philippine Business Conference and Expo on Friday.

Competitive advantage

“[We have to boost] the competitive advantage of the country’s export products and services,” Dee pointed out.

“This entails the identification of critical operational and policy impediments to the expansion of the domestic production base in the global value chain, [and] interfaced with the opportunities offered to us by the regional trade regime under the ASEAN and the bilateral trade agreements that the government negotiates,” Dee said.

“Export diversification would be an important policy shift that should be considered to re-orient the country’s export plan towards higher value added activities where sectoral mapping can be undertaken,” said Sergio Ortiz-Luis, PCCI chairman and Philippine Exporters Confederation president. JE/VS, GMANews.TV