‘PH should prepare for TPP membership’
THE Philippines should prepare for
Partnership (TPP) to allow the country to capture US markets and catch up with trade volumes in the region, outgoing Philippine ambassador to the US, Jose Cuisia Jr., said.
The Philippines, he said, should The TPP is a trade agreement “pursue our membership in the signed formally last February 4 by 12 member economies, which is foeven with the change in adminiscused on cutting of tariffs, lowering the cost of trade, as well as reducing to Rodrigo Duterte. restrictions on policy measures or so
called non-tariff measures (NTM)— of course, we don’t know if this all to encourage free trade between administration will pursue. The its members. US does not want a single country There are already twelve mempreference agreements anymore. ber economies included in the They prefer the multilateral [trade agreements] like the TPP. So we have to accept that,” Cuisia told Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singa pore, United States, and Vietnam. Club event on Friday. Cuisia said the US Congress
“And I’m hopeful that the secretary might likely ratify the TPP in of Trade and Industry [Ramon LoDecember after the US elections pez] and Undersecretary [Ceferino] in November, and then eventuRodolfo will pursue the Philippine ally include a “second batch” of membership in TPP,” he added. potential member economies that are aiming to be a part of the trade bloc.
The TPP will be the Philippines’ gateway into having freer access to the markets of US, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Canada.
they open up to a second batch? I am saying we should be ready for that, we should prepare ourselves, [so] we can be in the second batch. - tries who expressed interest to join like South Korea, Thailand, and possibly Indonesia,” Cuisia said.
“So my position is, if we are not ready, we will fall behind especially against Vietnam and Malaysia because they’re part of the TPP. Our markets will go to them especially in garments, shoes, and fruits like mango, among others,” he added.
Asked what can be done to prepare the country for its TPP membership, the outgoing ambassador listed three steps: Consultations with TPP member countries, improvement of our industries to be competitive, and amendment of the Constitution to allow for “higher foreign ownership in sectors which are limited.”
foreign ownership, we may not qualify. In other words, because one of the principles of TPP is that, there [should be] a level playing treatments for nationals [ like] Filipinos, Malaysians, or whatever, then we may not qualify, so that’s the problem. That’s the biggest challenge,” Cuisia said.
With the Duterte administration being vocal into pushing for the amendment of the 60-40 rule in foreign ownership in the country, Cuisia said this will be a “good opportunity” for the Philippines as it will boost the country’s viability to be included in the second batch of TPP members.
According to a TPP report by Philippines may suffer 0.2 percent losses in gross domestic product and 0.5 percent losses in exports would not make it into the TPP.
The 12 TPP member countries have a combined population of 800 million and are projected to account for 40 percent of the world’s gross domestic product and 30 percent of global trade.