Access of Pinoy accountants overseas pushed

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine trade negotiators should seek the liberalization of various trade barriers particularly on market access, national treatment and domestic regulation to exploit the competitiveness of Filipino accountants.

This was stressed by Tereso Tullao Jr. and Michael Angelo Cortez of De La Salle University-Manila in a paper titled “Accounting and Outsourcing for Philippine Export of Services” written for the Trade-Related Technical Assistance Project 2.

Tullao and Cortez said the request for such liberalization should not be pursued at the multilateral negotiations given the pace of discussions is proceeding at the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

“Aside from not getting immediate results in these multilateral negotiations, the Philippine request may be matched by counter requests from other countries that may affect key and sensitive sectors of the country not necessarily in services.”

The move would enable the country to benefit from the growing market for accountancy services worldwide, particularly auditing.

“Filipino accountants are seen to be highly competitive under the supply mode of movement of natural persons whether they are engaged in developed countries or developing countries,” Tullao and Cortez said.

They believed that Filipino accountants could be competitive in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) market.

The country may push for the implementation of the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS) particularly on the liberalization on the movement of professionals.

However, should the Philippines forges free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States, the liberalization of movement of natural persons will serve the interest of Filipino accountants given their competitiveness in that country where the market for accounting and auditing services is huge.

They likewise asked Filipino negotiators as well as leaders of the profession to determine whether the governments of countries of interest to local accountants are complying with the GATS Disciplines on Accountancy to ensure that their domestic regulations are not unnecessarily strict and become veiled trade barriers.

In line with the liberalization of movement of natural persons in the ASEAN, US, Canada and Australia, the country should push for the establishment of mutual recognition agreements (MRAs).

The MRAs would govern rules on the equivalence of educational, licensing, experience and other requirements in the practice of accounting profession to facilitate entry in markets where the competitiveness of Filipino accounts is very high.

Tullao and Cortez said the Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Foreign Affairs and key leaders of the profession are to launch promotional activities and market the competitiveness of Filipino accountants in countries where their competitiveness is high. (EHL)