By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter
THE PHILIPPINES will bat for liberalized trade in semiconductors, electronics, garments, and farm products in negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) with Canada, an official said.
“We want to optimize (market access) for our semiconductor and electronics products and, of course, garments because we want to help our garment industry,” Trade Undersecretary Allan B. Gepty told BusinessWorld in chance remarks.
“Of course, for our agricultural products, we need to strengthen our competitiveness. There are a lot of agricultural products that have the opportunity to become high-value products,” he said.
These include cacao, coffee, chocolate, and processed foods like fruit cocktail, he added.
In talks with Canada, he said the Philippine objective is to negotiate for the highest level of trade liberalization for goods and services.
“They are strong in services like financial and business services; for goods, they are looking at agricultural goods,” he said.
A bilateral FTA with Canada is among those in the pipeline, along with pending FTAs with the United Arab Emirates, the European Union, and Chile.
The Philippines is also looking to accede to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, alongside ongoing negotiations for the ASEAN-Canada FTA, the Digital Economy Framework Agreement in ASEAN, and the upgrade of the ASEAN-China FTA and ASEAN Trading Goods Agreement.
“For the FTA with Canada, the talks are ongoing. We had a mapping exercise or stock-taking exercise wherein we talked about our interests and what the possible challenges that we would need to confront,” he said.
Asked to elaborate, he said: “Maybe it’s not really a big challenge for us. But it just so happened that there are new elements in an FTA. So, the consultation process needs to be intensified.”
On the progress of talks with Chile, he said the Philippines is awaiting word on the continuation of negotiations.
“We are conducting a joint study with Chile on a possible FTA. So, once they finish the study, we can, of course, push for an FTA,” he said.
“But we are very positive that there’s a great potential to strongly and, of course, closely collaborate with Chile, as it is one of our directives for us to establish a trading partner in Latin America,” he added.
