Filipino enterprises urged to tap UK’s dormant £4.5-B trade facility

The government is urging businesses to tap the United Kingdom’s export-import facility to help them make their products viable for trade.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez said that in a recent meeting with United Kingdom Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox, the latter urged sourcing funds from the UK’s £4.5 billion-worth facility.

“We have mentioned it to the importers and to the exporters that there is such a facility, but essentially that is not for the government to take—it is really for the private sector. I believe that we have passed that information to the PCCI (Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry) and the different chambers, they know that this facility is available,” Dominguez told reporters.

He said private businesses need not apply for Philippine government approval before tapping the facility.

“[Fox] said that it is available for Philippine trade so we welcome it. That’s a facility they have universally,” Dominguez said.

He said PCCI was already “looking seriously into it because it is a trade facilitation instrument” covering both small and large enterprises.

Fox also told Dominguez during their meeting that the UK facility was an “undertapped resource.”

In 2016, Philippine exports to the UK reached $476 million, while imports amounted a slightly bigger $480 million. —BEN O. DE VERA