Philippines eyes trade deals with LatAm nations

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines hopes to form bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) with Latin American countries such as Mexico and Chile, according to Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual.

“I received word that we should start looking at Latin American countries like Argentina.

Of course there’s the bigger ones like Brazil and Chile. Mexico is another one,” Pascual said.

“Those are the ones that we will open the market for us, and we open our market to them. When the exports are complementary, it will be a good match,” Pascual said.

He cited that historically, the Philippines and Mexico have very strong trade relations through the galleon trade.

Meanwhile, Trade Undersecretary and Board of Investments (BOI) managing head Ceferino Rodolfo said that  a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of a joint economic cooperation (JEC) between the two countries had been signed last year.

“The JEC will serve as a confidence-building measure to further intensify the bilateral economic linkages while addressing the  challenges posed by geographic distance and generally low-level of awareness by businesses in each other’s markets,” Rodolfo said earlier.

He said the JEC would be a tool for engagement on enhancing current levels of trade and investments, discussing various cooperation initiatives in areas of mutual interest, and promoting better synergies with businesses.

Pascual earlier emphasized the need for more FTAs to diversify the country’s exports in terms of products and services and country destinations, as well as enhance the country’s attractiveness to foreign investments.

He said the country has the least number of FTAs in the ASEAN region with only 10 FTAs.

“The progressive countries around us like Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia all have many more FTAs than us. And then they’re doing much better than us in their economic development in their export volumes and in their foreign direct investment,”Pascual said, adding that these economies are growing faster and are attracting more investments.

Pascual earlier said that without FTAs and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the Philippines would not be an attractive location for  export-oriented enterprises.

The RCEP is a multilateral trade agreement between and among ASEAN countries, including the Philippines, and China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. It provides for an open, inclusive and rules-based trading system to promote deeper economic integration in the region.

The trade deal is expected to boost Philippine exports through enhanced market access in the region.It will provide cheaper goods for production and manufacturing, as well as ensure transparent rules and clear mechanism for resolving trade issues and concerns, and also allow micro, small and medium enterprises to participate in the global value chain.