Why PH is seen to benefit least from ASEAN trade cooperation

MANILA – The Philippines is seen to benefit the least from trade and investment cooperation among ASEAN nations, a Korean trade expert said.

Park Bun Soon, a professor at Hongik University in Seoul, said the Philippines’ trade with other ASEAN countries accounted for only 19.1 percent of its total trade.

He said that Philippine exports to ASEAN only account for 16 percent while imports make up 21.8 percent.

According to Park, the Philippines recorded a trade deficit for most of the ASEAN countries, noting that while it is acceptable for the country to record trade deficit against Indonesia and Malaysia because it imports the natural resources from those countries, the country recorded a trade deficit against Vietnam, which is a net importer of intermediate goods and parts due to its rapid development of industry.

Park said the trade deficit has resulted to the limited role the Philippines is playing in the internal ASEAN production sharing.

“Its sustained trade deficit may distort the economic structure of the country,” he said at a forum on “Envisioning the Future Partnership between Korea and the Philippines within ASEAN.”

The Philippines is importing basic materials and commodities as well as automobile parts because of the lack of natural resources and underdevelopment of basic industrial materials and industrial machinery.

Park said the Philippines should boost efforts in raising the efficiency and productivity of the economy in the long term as the ASEAN moves to a full-blown economic community.

He also said that Korea and the Philippines need to cooperate in a lot of areas, including improving the investment environment and the expansion of export capacity.

Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario is also pushing the Philippines to be Korea’s gateway to the region.

Del Rosario identified trade and investments as among the priorities for cooperation between the two countries.

In 2013, investments from Korea hit P8.5 billion last year, mostly in manufacturing. Korea is also the Philippines’ largest trading partner, and the sixth top source of foreign direct investments and seventh largest donor.

Korea has also been the Philippines’ number one source of tourists since 2006, topping 1.2 million in 2003. –ABS-CBNnews.com