Trade department continues Free Trade Areas info drive

Friday, July 15, 2011

A YEAR after launching an information campaign on Doing Business in Free Trade Areas (DBFTA), the government has extended such campaign by going sectoral to further go down to the level of exporters and unify trade strategy.

The Department of Trade and Industry launched Thursday a second round of information session to provide information relevant to respective industries. It was also aimed to engage the business sector to increase utilization of Philippine preferential trade agreements.

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"Even developed countries spend over 60 information sessions to ensure that their exporters would have the knowledge on how to utilize the benefits of FTA," Bureau of Export Trade Promotion director Senen M. Perlada said.

Philippines, he added, should do the same in information dissemination so that benefits cited in FTAs will be greatly utilized.

At the moment, Philippines as a member of Asean has seven existing FTAs namely, Afta, China (ACFTA), Korea (AKFTA), Australia-New Zealand (AANZFTA), Japan (AJCPA and PJEPA), and India (AIFTA).

Perlada explained that exporters should be aware on the importance of having a uniform and correct tariff heading as this is one basis to avail tariff reduction.

"With uninformed exporters, they end up not able to avail of the tariff reduction because they used the wrong heading or classification. This is why we are here to gather them and tell them the agreed heading so they could utilize FTAs," he said.

DTI also used the opportunity to consult the sector on the various issues they are facing and agree on what tariff heading to use for the next negotiation.

Perlada said that the government is engaging in a sectoral approach to be more specific in talking to exporters and be of help to their respective concerns.

In Davao Region, exporters in the sectors of ffod, ICT, coconut, and homestyle were consulted.