United Kingdom’s International Trade Secretary Liam Fox will be visiting Manila in April, a few days after Britain formally starts its divorce from the European Union, in a bid to reassure the Philippines of its interest for a bilateral trade agreement.
UK Ambassador Asif A. Ahmad told reporters the Philippines would be the first Asean member that Fox would be visiting as part of a three-legged tour also covering Malaysia and Indonesia.
Ahmad said UK’s trade chief would be here April 3 and 4 as a sign of support to the Philippines’ chairmanship of the Asean.
Apart from this, Fox’s arrival was also meant “to explain Brexit, which means Britain will be engaging more with countries like the Philippines,” said Ahmad.
This would reassure the Philippines there would be a free trade agreement (FTA) with UK in the future, he said. This would still depend, however, on the ongoing negotiations between the Philippines and the European Union for another FTA.
“Before we leave the EU, we are not allowed to negotiate a bilateral FTA, but afterwards we are going to line up a whole series of these. It really depends on how mature the EU FTA negotiation with the Philippines is. If by the time it’s finished, then of course, we would adopt it as it is,” he said.
Brexit is expected to take two years following the formal notice on March 29. If by the end of Brexit the EU-PH FTA has not been completed, Ahmad said the UK would pursue the bilateral with the Philippines in “due course.”