The Trade Department is looking at fresh investments and new technology once it signs a bilateral trade agreement with the members of the European Free Trade Area, possibly in the second quarter of 2016.
Trade Secretary Adrian Cristobal Jr. said the Philippines and EFTA were close to sealing a free trade agreement after the concluding talks on April 2016.
“It’s clear to us that EFTA member economies’ complement ours. One of our clear interests and benefits are the source of investments from these member states and the technology that their MNCs [multinational companies] possess. As a market, we have agricultural products that we really don’t produce and vice versa so that’s another area of interest,” he said.
The Trade Department is also confident the country’s niche products had a premium once it reached Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The four countries comprise EFTA as a single trade bloc.
The government noted that despite being smaller markets compared with other European countries, the economies of the four were more stable and ready to accept specialized organic products as well as high-end furnitures from the Philippines.
The Philippines will continue with domestic consultations with exporters who are interested in penetrating the EFTA market.
“We believe that alongside trade negotiations, marketing and promotion efforts should be pursued this early rather than wait for the agreement, for us to have a good head start,” Cristobal said.
The Philippines is pushing the signing of agreement to revitalize the international bilateral trade relations.
“After JPEPA, there has been a lull in our free trade agreements since 2010. In this administration, we’ve been building up our trade policy and negotiating capability. We’ve also set up our consultative mechanism—the one-country, one-voice, but we’ve also reached a level of awareness in critical sectors that will now enable us to negotiate with confidence,” said Cristobal.
Among the concessions the Philippines is negotiating with EFTA is the inclusion of rice and meat in the list of commodities.
Other potential exports to EFTA are footwear, ceramic wares, motor cars, upholstered seats, mineral or chemical fertilizers, fuel oils, cigarettes, lubricating oils, granulated sugar, breakfast cereals, non-alcoholic food preparations, ground nuts, unroasted coffee, corn feeds and frozen seafood.
The Philippines may also export air-conditioning units, apparels, navigational aids, telescopes, periscopes, and food preparations like sauces.
EFTA members have a combinied gross domestic product of $1.22 trillion and an average GDP per capita of $91,928 with a population of only 13.52 million.
