PH secures...

tariff barriers in ASEAN in line with the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint 2025.

Under the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA), import duties on 99.2 percent of tariffs with the original ASEAN 6 (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand) have been eliminated. For Cambodia, Lao, PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam (CLMV), it’s at 90.0 percent tariff liberalization. Overall, 96.01 percent of all tariffs in ASEAN have been eliminated.

On RCEP, Rodolfo said that ministers will meet on Sunday, Sept. 10, for the 5th RCEP Ministerial Meeting here and “remain hopeful” of a positive outcome citing the importance that the meeting comes to a substantial conclusion because RCEP has now become the most viable and biggest FTA agreements globally.

Substantial conclusion to the RCEP negotiations refer to being able to settle the modalities of trade negotiations, services, and investments. This means having finalized the targets of liberalization as to what percentage of trade a member country should eliminate tariff and a timetable for the remaining percentage, whether these are eliminated over a period of 10 to 15 years.

Rodolfo also cited other elements that other RCEP countries, mostly those from who belonged to the mothballed Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), would like to introduce in the negotiations such as the “ratchet and most-favored nation,” concepts that other non-TPP countries find difficult to hurdle.

Some countries, particularly ASEAN, have already set their liberalization commitments to 90-92 percent, but one or two FTA partner countries are still at 80 percent. The target is to have a consensus modality at 92 percent.