Landmark deal boosts Australia, PH trade by 70%

Two-way trade between Australia and the Philippines is now at P175 billion, almost a decade since a multilateral deal was signed, according to a top official of the Australian Trade and Investment Commission.

Elodie Journet, senior trade commissioner and counselor, attributed the 70-percent growth to the free trade agreement (FTA) signed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Australia and New Zealand in 2010.

Called the Asean-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA), it is the first FTA signed by the Asean covering trade in goods, services and other investments.

“Since the [deal’s] implementation in 2010, two-way trade rose 70 percent. When you look at numbers for 2016, the trade between Australia and the Philippines reached 4.3 billion [Australian] dollars [or] 174.9 billion pesos,” Journet said in a media briefing on Tuesday night.

In 2010, 96.4 percent of Australian tariff lines and 84.7 percent of New Zealand tariff lines were adjusted to a zero-rate basis, according to the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Bureau of Export Trade Promotion. Among the Philippine exports that benefited from this included auto parts, ships and boats, minerals, chemicals, handicrafts, jewelry, and food items like canned pineapples, pineapple juice and tuna, DTI said.

By 2020, DTI said all products exported by the Philippines to Australia and New Zealand would already enjoy zero tariff.

Journet said over 208 Australian companies had invested in the Philippines so far, accounting for 9.3 billion Australian dollars in various industries such as business process outsourcing, banking and mining.

On the other hand, Filipino investments in Australia have reached 1.3 billion Australian dollars so far, she said.