Most free trade pacts ignored

THE Philippines should maximize the utilization of benefits under its existing free trade agreements with other countries as one of the vital market strategies to increase exports, a high-ranking Trade official said.

Undersecretary for International Trade Adrian Cristobal Jr. said this could be done through continuous education and communication programs to inform local businessmen of the benefits of these free trade agreements with other countries.

Cristobal’s call came after a book launched by the Asian Development Bank on Friday said only one in every five manufacturing companies in the Philippines benefit from the use of free trade agreements.

“Around 20 percent of companies in the Philippines are using free trade agreement, and mostly on Asean Free Trade Area agreement,” Ganeshan Wignaraja, one of the authors of the book, said. “We don’t find much use of the other agreements.”

The country has a bilateral trade agreement with Japan through the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement. It is also a signatory in the regional trade agreements with Asean, Apec and Asem and WTO on the multilateral side.

“The country should also target emerging markets with high economic growth for finished-goods exports,” Cristobal said.

He cited China and India as two of the markets for eyed for direct exports, and Brazil through channel destinations.

He said another strategy is to participate in global supply chains with China, Asean, and India as primary destinations for re-export to the United States and European Union consumer markets.

The fourth strategy to increase the country’s exports would be to capture export-oriented foreign direct investments from China, Japan, Korea, US, Australia-New Zealand and EU.

Cristobal also said the country should continue its unified and coherent trade, investment and tourism promotions, under the One Country, One Brand campaign. He said there must be fewer official outbound trade missions but it should be strategic and focused capped with the hosting of high-impact trade fairs. –Julito G. Rada with Roderick T. dela Cruz, Manila Standard Today