DTI secretary flies to Australia to draw more investors to PH

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Trade and Industry is trying to convince more Australian businesses to set up shop in the country, particularly those in the information technology, business process outsourcing, houseware, and energy sectors.

Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo and Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal Jr. flew to Australia Monday night to meet with Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson to discuss business opportunities between the two countries.

They will also be selling the country’s public-private partnership projects to Australian investors.

The Philippine business delegation, on the other hand, will have their own meetings with Australian firms engaged in the IT, BPO, houseware, and energy businesses. The Philippine-Australia Business Council will also be joining the meetings.

According to Domingo, the implementation of the Asean-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) significantly boosted trade between the Philippines and Australia. Barely two years after its effectivity, the FTA already had a 26-percent utilization rate, benefiting businesses from both sides.

The tariff cuts scheduled for 2012 and 2013 would further increase the agreement’s usage by Philippine and Australian businesses, he said.

The AANZFTA covers more than 20 percent of Australia’s $86-billion merchandise trade. Apart from trade in goods, the pact includes services, investment, intellectual property, e-commerce, entry of business people, and economic cooperation.

It eliminates tariffs for all Philippine exports to Australia and New Zealand. At initial implementation, 96.4 percent of tariff lines were reduced to zero.

The DTI also exerted efforts to boost trade between the Philippines and New Zealand, with officials going to Wellington to educate importers there on which products they could get from the Philippines, as well as the tariff preferences contained in the AANZFTA.