DTI to launch info, monitoring system for FTAs

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will launch this year an online platform to monitor the country’s utilization of its free trade agreements (FTAs). Through this platform, the government could determine how Philippine-based enterprises are taking advantage of the FTAs that the country signed into. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) will launch this year an online platform to monitor the country’s utilization of its free trade agreements (FTAs).

In an interview early this week, DTI-Export Marketing Bureau Director Bianca Pearl Sykimte said the agency is now putting up the FTA Information Portal and Origin Management System.

She said the DTI targets to launch this online platform during the National Exporters Week this December.

Through this platform, the government could determine how Philippine-based enterprises are taking advantage of the FTAs that the country signed into.

READ: Marcos admin expanding free trade deals

To date, the Philippines has three bilateral FTAs—the Philippines-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (PJEPA), Philippines-European Free Trade Association (PH-EFTA) FTA, and Philippine-South Korea FTA.

Two bilateral FTAs are under negotiations—one with the European Union and the other one with the United Arab Emirates.

Multilateral FTAs that the country took part in are mostly with Asean and its trading partners such as Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Japan, and South Korea. The Philippines likewise joined the larger FTA, which is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), with these nations except for India.

Sykimte said aside from monitoring the FTA utilization rate, the online platform will also help existing and aspiring exporters to determine if their products can use any of the country’s FTAs.

“So, in the FTA Information Portal, it will have an origin simulator. So, you’ll just have to input your materials, your information on your supply chain and then it will make an analysis if you can qualify for preferential rates,” the DTI official said. (PNA)