THE Philippines has committed to improve its utilization of the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), which offers Philippine exporters access to tariff-free trade on 92 percent of products to the United Kingdom.
Allan Gepty, undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), in a text message on Thursday said the Philippines made this and other commitments at the first ever Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) with UK Minister for Trade Policy and Economic Security Douglas Alexander in London on March 17.
A joint statement posted on the UK government’s website on March 19 showed Alexander and Gepty endorsed a program of work to advance bilateral cooperation over the next 12 to 18 months, including government-to-government and government-to-business activity in priority areas such as infrastructure, agriculture, energy, economic development, life sciences, and technology.
Utilization rate now at 68%
On DCTS, Export Marketing Bureau Bianca Sykimte said in a text message on Thursday that the Philippines’ utilization rate now stands at 68 percent.
There were no comparative figures from 2024 but this is lower than the 73 percent utilization rate of Philippine exporters under the EU Generalized System of Preferences in 2023, based on data posted on the website of the EU Delegation to the Philippines.
The DCTS, UK’s own preferential trade scheme which took effect mid-2023, lowered or removed tariffs on additional 156 products for developing countries, including the Philippines. This benefits a range of high value products to the UK including tuna, shirts, and starch, the DCTS website showed.
The Philippines was the UK’s 60th largest trading partner as of the end of the third quarter 2024, accounting for 0.2 percent of total UK trade, the UK government said.
Total trade in goods and services between the UK and the Philippines in the same period was 2.8 billion pounds.
Gepty said another area of collaboration between the UK and the Philippines is in the agriculture sector on issues such as animal disease detection and antimicrobial resistance as well as new opportunities on precision breeding and genetics.
He did not elaborate but the UK Government website said agriculture is an important area for bilateral trade — the Philippines is the fourth largest export market for UK pork after the EU, US, and China.
Gepty and Alexander highlighted investment opportunities in the Philippines for UK agricultural companies and promoted imports of UK meat in light of the recent removal of bans on beef and poultry exports from the UK, worth 80 million pounds over five years.
The UK government’s website said Gepty and Alexander also committed to progressing work towards a government-to-government Financing Framework Partnership that will unlock up to 5 billion pounds of potential financing from UK Export Finance for the delivery of sustainable public infrastructure and improve access to UK expertise and technology in the Philippines.
In 2024, the UK was the largest single investor in the Philippines, driven mainly by investments in renewables, the UK government website said.
Gepty said in a text message that both countries “recognized the important role of bilateral trade in furthering economic development in the Philippines
