Citing recent disasters, EDC to revise trade targets

The Export Development Council (EDC) is planning to revise its trade target, citing the huge impact of natural disasters on the country’s export capacity.

Initially, the council hopes to double the value of outbound shipments to $120 billion by 2016, said the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (Philexport).

EDC deputy executive director Emmarita Mijares was quoted in a Philexport statement as saying that factors here and abroad could affect the council’s target as outlined in the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2011-2013.

For one, Mijares said, the production capacity of local exporters in areas devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” and the 7.2-magnitude earthquake have been cut significantly.

The economy of the United States, a big market for the Philippines, continue to face problems, while the European Union has yet to recover. Japan meanwhile has only slightly recovered while that of China has remained flat, Mijares added.

According to Mijares, the EDC will start crafting next week the PEDP 2014-2016, which will contain export revenue targets for the next three years in consideration of the problems affecting local and international markets.

For this year, the Department of Trade and Industry has remained bullish that the country’s total exports will still manage to grow by 7-8 percent, while merchandise exports alone were forecasted to grow by 3-5 percent, driven mainly by the robust performance of the nonelectronics sector. This was despite industry forecasts of a flat growth for merchandise exports from last year’s $51.99 billion.