EDC studies Japan impact

MANILA, Philippines—The Export Development Council is set to evaluate this Friday the impact of the Japan crisis on the country’s export targets, to give the government and the private sector a clearer idea of how to cope with the challenges that this unexpected event has brought.

In a telephone interview, EDC executive director Senen Perlada said this Friday’s executive committee meeting would deal with these issues. However, since the situation was still very fluid, the full effect of the crisis on the country’s trade might not be determined until May or June.

“We know that there will be an effect on us, but we still don’t know how much. Our agricultural exports will surely be affected, especially our mangoes. We only have one and a half to two months of peak periods for mangoes, and that’s almost over. Since we have logistical problems, we’ll have to divert to domestic markets. But we believe the effects are very short-term,” he related.

At this point, he said the electronics sector, seen to be most affected by the supply chain problem caused by the Japan crisis, was still relatively unscathed. Still, this sector would be closely watched.

The latest Philippine Export Development Plan maps out strategies to more than double the country’s exports from around $50 billion last year to as much as $120 billion by 2016.