The Philippines will not make a big push in forging free trade agreements (FTAs) with either the United States (US) or the European Union (EU), opting to take advantage of the existing trading arrangements with both partners.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said while the Philippines is open to an FTA with the US but the current “mood” in the US Congress, which has to ratify the deal, may not be as welcoming.
“It all depends on their side. The USTR (US Trade Representative) but their Congress may not be that interested, “Lopez said.
Lopez said the cancellation of the visa of a Philippine senator is not linked to the FTA in any way “but you can already have a sense of the mood in the Congress, in other words, anything to do with us might have an issue. That visa cancellation led to a travel ban to the Philippines on three American senators.
“The (US Congress) may not be excited, or may not be that supportive,” Lopez said.
But he said the Philippines is ready and is just waiting for the US to signal that they can start talks.
Under the existing Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, the Philippines and the US have deals covering customs administration and trade facilitation , cooperation on stopping illegal transshipments of textiles and apparel and implementation of minimum access commitments by the Philippines.
“We have to work with (the fact that the US) has its internal processes and if that is the mood in Congress… we don’t know if that represents the whole Congress or just handful of them (have that sentiment). We are leaving it up to them, the politics. If the USTR will be confident with the Congress, for sure they will push for it also. Because they mentioned it before that the Philippines is the next country (for FTA),” said Lopez.
Lopez is also not discouraged as exports to the US remains strong, growing at about 10 percent.
“We’re not complaining,” said Lopez.
The Philippines also enjoys duty-free privileges for certain exports to the US under its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).
On EU, Lopez said the Philippines will also take full advantage of its GSP Plus privileges as well as their Partnership and Cooperation Agreement PCA.
“With the EU, we also have GSP but we have also been open to (an FTA) But they have put that aside for now. We were supposed to have next round of meetings. But they have not set the schedule,” Lopez said.
He said he hopes with the new trade commissioner, the Philippines will await what the EU’s priorities are.
Meanwhile, the first ever joint committee under the new EU- Philippines PCA met in Brussels on Tuesday where it committed to work in a systematic way to explore the full potential for cooperation in different sectors.
A statement from the EU delegation to the Philippines said both sides o acknowledged the importance of the EU-Philippines FTA and exchanged views on the prospects of continuing negotiations.
They also discussed the effective implementation by the Philippines of its commitments under the international conventions underpinning the granting of GSP Plus benefits.
