PH-US free trade talks to start in 2020
Credit to Author: Tyrone Jasper C. Piad| Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2019 16:13:10 +0000
The Philippines and the United States are seen to start negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) next year.
American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc. (AmCham) Executive Director Ebb Hinchliffe, on the sidelines of an event in Pasay last week, said US Trade Representatives (USTR) were concluding the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) first before delving in other trade deals.
“I believe that I can say fairly confidently after USMCA is done, the next country that the US would be looking at would probably be the Philippines ahead of Vietnam and possibly ahead of UK (United Kingdom) for obvious reasons,” Hinchliffe said. He did not elaborate.
Hinchliffe said he was “hoping” USMCA negotiations would be done by December this year or by “early next year” at the latest.
Hinchliffe expressed confidence negotiations between the countries, which he intends to bring up to the Congress early next year, would not take too long.
“We are common partners, we know each other very well, we know our needs and wants very well. This trade agreement should happen very quickly,” he said.
The AmCham official said the US would be open for bilateral and multilateral agreements.
The Philippines is currently enjoying zero or reduced tariffs to over 5,000 goods or 48 percent of the 10,600 US tariff lines under the US Generalized System of Preferences.
As of end-September, Philippine shipments to US reached $8.57 billion, which showed a 7.4-percent growth from previous year’s $7.98 billion, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
US imports to the country, meanwhile, declined by 3.3 percent to $5.80 billion in the first three quarters from nearly $6 billion a year ago for the same period.
As of now, the Philippines’ only bilateral free trade agreement is with Japan under Philippines-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement.