PH, EFTA launch 4th round of talks

The Philippines and the European Free Trade Associations (EFTA) have launched their fourth round of negotiations over the weekend as both trading partners move closer to hit their goal of forging bilateral free trade organizations before President Aquino steps down from office in June next year.

Trade and Industry Assistant Secretary Ceferino S. Rodolfo said the fourth round of talks started on Saturday and will wrap up tomorrow, Oct. 27, in Geneva. Trade and Industry Undersecretary Adrian S. Cristobal Jr. led the Philippine negotiating team.

The Philippines insists on obtaining access in the EFTA countries for its agricultural products like rice and meat products, which are protected areas in EFTA.

Issues on intellectual property rights have been smoothen out, but EFTA has raised concerns on foreign ownership rules in some industries in the Philippines and on land ownership. The Philippines allows only up to 40 percent foreign ownership on certain industries like utilities, mass media, and small scale mining operations.

The Philippines is looking at benefiting from EFTA’s vast industries in the areas of shipbuilding, iron and steel, automotive and automotive parts and components, and aerospace and information technology-business process management (IT-BPM), and chemicals.

In terms of shipbuilding, Norway has the most advanced industry and the Philippines hopes to tap this opportunity to build the capability of its booming shipbuilding and ship repair sector.

The Philippines also sees potential exports in creative services which include editing, sound mixing, dubbing, animation, and computer graphics.

Other ASEAN countries have better market share in the EFTA market than the Philippines.

Vietnam was EFTA's largest import source in ASEAN with 30.26% market share based from EFTA's total ASEAN imports from 2008-2012.

Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are also negotiating FTA deals with these rich nation EU bloc. Singapore has an existing FTA with FTA.

EFTA is composed of four member states including Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. Norway and Switzerland were among the founding member states of EFTA in 1960. Iceland joined EFTA in 1970, followed by Liechtenstein in 1991.

The PH-EFTA Joint Declaration on Cooperation was signed on June 23, 2014 in Reykjavik, Iceland.

EFTA member states are among the economies with the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita. Liechtenstein has the second highest GDP per capital in the world valued at $89,400, while Switzerland, the largest market among the EFTA member states, has a GDP per capita of $54,800 and ranks 11th in the economies with the highest GDP per capita.

Forging a trade pact will open access for the Philippines into EFTA's vast global network of preferential trade agreements outside the European Union. EFTA currently comprises 25 agreements with 35 countries and territories.