Traders temper hope RCEP in SoNA
What is important is market access, it will attract investments in participating countries
Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the country’s biggest business group, expects President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to discuss in today’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA) measures to address existing challenges in the agriculture sector and the threat from spiking fuel prices.
It does not expect, however, the long-delayed ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to be part of the speech.
PCCI President George Barcelon said he expected the Chief Executive to tackle challenges in the agriculture sector, particularly in resolving the ballooning prices of commodities and food.
“I would think that he would discuss the increase in fuel and food products affecting most Filipinos right now, especially that the portfolio on agriculture is in his hands. One of the key issues to the farmers now is really the cost of input, which is fertilizer.
We expect him to lay down plans for the government to alleviate or lessen the cost of those products,” he told the Daily Tribune.
Earlier this week, Marcos, who also took the helm in the agriculture department, indicated his preference for government -to-government talks to address the surging costs of fertilizers and expressed belief that the government could purchase cheaper fertilizers by dealing directly with the governments of China, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and Russia.
Barcelon believes that Marcos will not include the RCEP issue in his talk. RCEP is a free trade agreement among Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
“RCEP is still hounded by the background noise of farmers and the whole agricultural sector’s concerns that they are not yet competitive with other member countries, especially right now. I doubt he will touch that. (And) I don’t know whether he will touch on some legislative issues such as agrarian reform, which is a fundamental issue,” he added.
RCEP took effect on 1 January 2022 this year but the Philippines is not a member since the Senate has yet to approve the accord.
On Thursday, former Trade Secretary
Ramon Lopez maintained that the Philippines missing RCEP’s inclusion would result to loss of export opportunities.
“What is important is market access, it will attract investments in participating countries. Imagine if the Philippines is not part of RCEP, any investors that we are trying to attract now after passing Public Service Act, [and] Retail Trade Liberalization Act will be a waste.”
Address energy issues
Barcelon said he expects the President to add in his SoNA speech the issue of energy supply, particularly its cost and distribution, as there is somehow an imbalance that is happening, especially in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Earlier, the PCCI has called on Marcos Jr. to define his administration’s agenda on energy supply security and affordable power cost, stressing that residential, commercial and the industrial sectors in the Philippines have been significantly higher from between 25 percent to as high as 87 percent than its ASEAN neighbors, namely, Malaysia (87.5 percent), Indonesia (87.5 percent), Vietnam (50 percent) and Thailand (36 percent).
“Electricity cost in Japan and Singapore are higher than ours but their economies are way ahead” Barcelon added.