Agnes Legaspi (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
More markets in Europe are expected to open with the signing of a free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) within the first half of this year.
Agnes Perpetua Legaspi, assistant director of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Export Marketing Bureau, said they hoped to sign the agreement in April at the earliest.
“EFTA hopefully within this year; the other (negotiations) may go beyond this year,” she said during the Philippine Export Competitiveness Program forum with Cebuano exporters yesterday.
She cited four other developing agreements, namely the Trans-Pacific Partnership with the US, Asean Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Asean-Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement, and Philippine-EU FTA.
The EFTA will bridge the country with new trade partners, namely Liechtenstein, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland.
Among the export products in demand in these countries are from the industrial and agri-business sectors. Also in demand are garments and clothing, organic products, and seaweed (carrageenan), said Legaspi.
The Philippines is also pursuing a bilateral FTA with the European Union (Philippine-EU), after the success in entering the EU-Generalized Scheme of Preference plus (GSP plus) scheme.
The GSP plus allows the country to trade over 6,000 products with EU countries duty-free for 10 years starting in 2014.
Without the new agreement, products exported from Philippines to EU countries under the GSP plus will “go back to regular tariff rates” by 2024.
“We are pursuing PH-EU to sustain the gains in the GSP plus,” Legaspi added.
She also affirmed the Philippines’ commitment in pursuing the TPP with US, as well as the Asean-RCEP, and Asean-HK.
“This is clamored for by the exporters. Our largest market is the US. Other Asean countries like Malaysia already have access to the US under TPP. We don’t have access yet,” she added.
Countries that have signed the TPP agreement are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, US, and Vietnam.
It presents a large, untapped market for the Philippines, with 40 percent of the world’s economy and around 800 million consumers.
Apart from the Philippines, Taiwan and Columbia have also expressed interest in entering into the TPP.
Legaspi said they were also exploring separate trade agreements with other countries, like Chile, as well as bilateral agreements with EU, US and Canada, she said.
She said liberalization must continue to be fast-tracked.
“We are not so far behind the top exporters in Asean, namely Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. What we are trying to drive at is really to inform our exporters that there are agreements they have to take advantage of,” she said.
“That is why the Philippine Export Development Plan is important. All agencies are involved in making exports easy, so we will be able to achieve our targets even if there’s a global slowdown,” she added.
At present, the Philippines has seven existing FTAs, namely Asean, Asean-China, Asean-Korea, Asean-Australia-New Zealand, Asean-Japan, Philippines-Japan Economic Partnership (PJEPA), and Asean-India Free Trade Area.