PH still eyeing FTA with South Korea this year

The Philippines is still eyeing the signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea this year despite missing its initial timetable of sealing the trade pact with officials from the East Asian country during the earlier part of 2023.

“I think it’s feasible this year, so far, based on signals that I got when I was in Detroit talking to my counterpart from Korea,” Philippine Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual told reporters last week on the sidelines of the Philippine Retailers Association’s 2023 Awards Night for Outstanding Filipino Retailers.

Pascual said he already sought authorization from President Marcos around two months ago that will see Manila agreeing to this trade deal with Seoul.

Sought for comment, an official from the South Korean embassy in Manila said that both sides could still be finishing work on the English and Korean text versions of the documents, but did not elaborate further.

To recall, Pascual had said back in late December of last year that they are looking to sign a Philippine–South Korea FTA as early as during the first quarter of 2023.

Manila’s priority interest in an FTA with the East Asian country lies on the export of banana and processed pineapples, exports goods which are currently levied a 30-percent tariff by Korea.

“That is very critical for us in terms of trade value because that is big. We are also competitively disadvantaged vis-à-vis Vietnam,” Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo said back in October of 2022.

The Philippine trade official explained that Vietnam signed an FTA with South Korea in 2015, which reduced and will eventually set the two-way tariffs for bananas to zero after several years.

The trade official added that the Philippines is also looking at directly supplying South Korea with nickel ore under the planned FTA, an arrangement seen as more beneficial to both parties by cutting off middlemen countries. INQ