PH, EU to pursue free-trade pact

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine government will spend the next three months conducting consultations with various stakeholders and doing impact assessment studies on different sectors in preparation for talks with the European Union within the year on a possible free-trade agreement.

Trade Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal Jr. said the EU was actually prepared to enter into talks with the country at any time as the trade bloc has already conducted its own preparations for FTA negotiations, in line with discussions for an FTA with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

“We have to start the ball rolling by conducting our own domestic processes. We’ll do this for at least three months. During those months, we’ll be doing impact studies and having dialogues with specific sectors. After this, within the year, we’ll sit down with our EU counterparts to discuss some preliminary matters,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

He said the government would use a study conducted by the Universal Access to Competitiveness and Trade (U-Act), a Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry-affiliated think tank, in November 2009 as a springboard.

According to the U-Act study, the EU is considered the world’s biggest economy, accounting for 17 percent of world trade in goods, 25 percent of services and half of foreign direct investments worldwide.

Sectors likely to benefit from a PH-EU FTA include vegetables, oils and fats, textiles and apparels, motor vehicle parts and other manufactures.

Those that have some potential, on the other hand, include financial services and insurance, chemical products, communications, construction and dwellings, energy and water supply, paper and publishing, leather, machinery and electrical appliances.

Philippine exports that can make it big in the EU market include fishery; seafood and marine products, particularly Mindanao tuna; broilers; agricultural products; fresh fruits, especially bananas; muscovado sugar; processed fruits such as mango, pomelo and banana chips; processed or semi-processed coffee products; oleochemicals; coconut-based products such as virgin coconut oil, soap and perfume; natural rubber; biofuels; mining products; furniture; jewelry, handmade paper; cameras; health and tourism; information and communications technology services; and skilled labor for the services sector.