MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines has identified shipbuilding, automotive, and aerospace as potential areas where the country can strike deals with the four member states of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) once the joint declaration is signed next month.
Trade Undersecretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. EU PHOTO FROM BOI.GOV.PH
The joint declaration is expected to further strengthen the commitment, economic cooperation, as well as trade and investment relations between the Philippines and the four European economies that make up the EFTA—Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
Barring unforeseen events, Philippine trade officials are set to fly to the Westman Islands in Iceland next month for the signing of the joint declaration, which will be held during the EFTA summer ministerial meetings scheduled on June 23.
“The proposed signing of the joint declaration will coincide with the scheduled ministerial meetings of EFTA. For the Joint Declaration, we aim to identify areas for cooperation. Initially, we foresee,” Trade Undersecretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. said in a text message.
The signing of the joint declaration is an initial step toward promoting Philippine-EFTA relations, “which we expect to result (in) job creation through the expansion of trade and investments,” he added.
The declaration is also expected to pave the way for a free trade agreement (FTA) negotiation between the Philippines and the EFTA.
While the states are reportedly not big markets compared to the Philippines’ other existing partners in Europe, the four countries are considered “rich markets” particularly for niche and high-end products. The country’s main interest is to attract investments from the EFTA countries, which host huge corporations.
In the Asia-Pacific, EFTA has an existing FTA with Hong Kong China, Republic of Korea and Singapore. It is currently negotiating with India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. EFTA countries have also signed either a joint declaration on cooperation or a dialogue on closer trade relations with Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan and Thailand.