DTI urges private sector to participate in consultations on free trade pacts

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has asked members of the civil society and business organizations to participate in free trade agreements (FTA) consultations after the groups issued a warning on the DTI to carefully study the social costs of FTAs.

Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo has urged the private sector and civil society groups to participate in the consultations. “Involving civil society and the private sector in this consultation process will help us arrive at rational, sound, and balanced policies in pursuit of development objectives.”

Domingo noted that there are benefits from preferential trade agreements or economic partnership agreements, though learnings from agreements like the Japan Philippine Economic Partnership Agreemet (JPEPA), are also valuable.

The consultations have resulted in an exchange of perspective from government, civil society organizations, and other sectors. Some non-government organizations expressed their concerns that government must make sure that “the balance is there” while stressing the need to ensure that trade is being used for development.

“Consultations are essential since international trade is a very important aspect of our national economy. We welcome the fact that the consultations shall cover not only trade policy formulation and trade negotiation, but also the monitoring and evaluation of our current trade agreements,” Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (IDEALS) senior adviser Antonio Salvador said during the launch of “One Country, One Voice” (OCOV). OCOV is a nationwide consultation program on trade policies launched in Manila last March and which has also been conducted in Visayas (Cebu) and Mindanao (Davao). The Philippine-EU preferential trade agreement is one of the topics of the consultations.

For his part, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) chair Ambassador Donald Dee assured stakeholders that the chambers are supporting the DTI in developing awareness of benefits of FTAs among their constituency and at the same time, the chamber is committed to social responsibilities such as environment and human resource development. Dee said that if the Philippines actively pursues various FTAs, the country will move up the value chain in two or three years.

The JPEPA, the country’s only bilateral agreement to date, has earned the ire of some sectors who have deemed some provisions of JPEPA as unfair, particularly on the issue of movement of persons. Japan and the Philippines are set to review the trade agreement in December this year. –Ma. Elisa P. Osorio (The Philippine Star)