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the world last year.
In a statement, the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) challenged the senators to “live up” to their commitments “to address the longstanding problems plaguing the agriculture sector.” FFF also called on President Marcos Jr., who concurrently sits as the agriculture secre-
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prices,” Reside said.
Nonetheless, National Scientist Raul V. Fabella said what the RCEP did is to maintain the status quo in the region. But not being part of RCEP would have led to economic losses for the Philippines. Fabella said RCEP is one ex- tary, to meet with farmers, shermen and other agriculture stakeholders to "allay their fears" on RCEP’s negative impacts on the agriculture sector. Furthermore, FFF said Marcos should spell out the support programs that will be given to ample of an incremental improvement that would hardly be a game changer for the economy. ese kinds of changes allow the country to reap “benefits at the edges, not tsunamis.”
“We mistake individual policy changes as shifts in policy ecology.
It is the latter, which is a universe of investment-pulling policies, that create noticeable changes in investment,” Fabella said.
“Before RCEP kulelat na tayo [we were a cellar dweller] in foreign investment. Our rivals embraced RCEP. Our embrace of RCEP puts us back to the status quo ante which is kulelat,” he added.
“No amount of sugar coating can hide the disastrous impact of RCEP to the country, especially on the agriculture sector,” it said.
“Putting a thousand guidelines to an oversight committee without an enabling law is meaningless,” it added.
Gateway to ASEAN is makes the country an ideal manufacturing and research and development hub, even for nonRCEP countries, he said. Manufactured products can then be exported to RCEP-participating countries with preferential tariffs.
IN a statement on Wednesday, National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said the ratification of the RCEP brings the country closer to becoming a gateway to ASEAN.
Balisacan said the Philippines has an advantage: it can serve as a gateway to the dynamic ASEAN region, and boasts of a young, growing work force, and stable legal regime, particularly on intellectual property and competition policy.
He said RCEP consolidates existing ASEAN regional free trade agreements among members and covers trade in goods, services, investments, economic and technical cooperation, as well as dispute settlement, among others.
“With the country’s participation to RCEP, the Philippines has
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free trade agreement in the world, and we are looking forward to the wider market access RCEP will grant and eventually, lower prices for some key commodities.” e European chamber said ratification of RCEP sends a “positive message that the Philippines upholds and values a rules-based trading system.”
ECCP, British chambers ASIDE from the seven foreign chambers included in the JFC, the European and British Chambers also expressed their support for the Senate’s ratification of RCEP.
In a separate statement, the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) said the Philippines’s membership to the said trade deal will “yield” significant economic benefits for the Philippines.
“It will optimize the country’s participation to the global value chain,” ECCP said in a statement on Wednesday.
For his part, Chris Nelson, Executive Director of the British Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (BCCP) told the BM , “ e Philippines, being part of the world’s largest trading bloc, is another strong support to the economy.”
“ e British Chamber has consistently advocated for ratification—and this will further in-
FFF said the guidelines of the Senate should have focused on policy reforms, new strategies, and changes in implementation and impact assessment mechanisms to improve government interventions to agriculture sector.
“Many of the proposed interventions of the Department of Agriculture [DA] and other agencies were mere reiterations of long-standing programs that have had minimal impact on the competitiveness and pro tability of farmers and shers,” it said.
The two groups lauded Sen. Risa Hontiveros for voting against the rati cation of RCEP.
For his part, Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said the rati cation of RCEP is key to a “more open, transparent, and predictable trade and investment environment.” now further strengthened its position as an ideal investment hub in the region as we expand market access, facilitate trade, and align our rules and procedures with participating economies,” Balisacan said. crease the opportunity for Trade and Investment between the Philippines and UK,” Nelson added. rough the lens of Philippine industry, the Confederation of Wearable Exporters of the Philippines (CONWEP) backed their support of the trade deal by laying down export data to the 10 RCEP member countries.
“Deeper economic integration among the RCEP member states will expand the country’s market access for goods and services, attract more investments, and create more and better jobs,” Diokno said in a statement on Wednesday.
In line with the overall goals of the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028, robust business expansion and investment are seen to lead to more, higher quality, and more resilient jobs that will be key to rapid and sustained poverty reduction.
“With the strong support of Congress, yesterday’s concurrence to the RCEP Agreement is a testament to the government’s commitment to creating an environment conducive for trade and investments that are catalysts for job creation, skills development, and technology transfer as we seek to transform the Philippine economy in the next six years,” Balisacan added.
Complementary to RCEP’s ratification is the recent implementation of key economic liberalization laws such as the amendments to the Retail Trade Liberalization Act, Foreign Investments Act, Public Service Act, and the Build-OperateTransfer Law, which will facilitate a more open and business-friendly investment climate.
“2021/2022 export data to the 10 RCEP member countries showed that the Philippines exported in 2022 US$315 million worth of apparel, leather goods, textile and footwear,” CONWEP said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that exports to RCEP countries in 2022 posted 8-percent growth compared to 2021 export performance.
As to the Philippine wearable exports’ share in the world, CONWEP said the “US$315-million RCEP exports in 2022 represents 19.3 percent of Total Wearables exports to the world.”
Among markets for wearables, the organization said Japan “consistently” ranks as the Philippines’s export market for wearables with a 54-percent share of total exports to the RCEP member states based on 2022 performance.
China ranks second top RCEP export country, with an export value of US$90 million in 2022, followed by Australia, CONWEP noted.
Meanwhile, Trade Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual said the impact of the regional trade deal now rests on “how fast our business people will react.”
“We are trying to look for possible solutions. Because the reasons behind why we dropped to number 3 were uncontrollable. We are just hoping that the gap between the number 2 and number 3 will not be that wide and will not become wider,” he said. e broke the story that Guatemala ended the Philippines’s four-year reign as the world’s second largest exporter of bananas as the Asian country struggled to keep its share in key markets amid stiffer competition from Latin American producers. (Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2023/01/26/phl-loses-no2-spot-for-banana-exporters) e United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) explained that banana production in the Philippines continued to fall as growers struggled to address and curb the “devastating” spread of Banana Fusarium Wilt Tropical Race 4 disease. e country’s banana exports to Japan, the country’s biggest market, fell slightly to 919,510.537 MT from 929,917.582 MT while shipments to China declined by 8.4 percent to 831,642.276 MT from 907,536.537 MT.
Antig concurred with the reasons of FAO, disclosing that his group estimated the total hectarage affected by Fusarium Wilt is between 15,000 hectares and 36,000 hectares. e area would represent about 17 percent to 40 percent of the 88,000 hectares planted with bananas nationwide.
Antig said the small and medium-scale banana producers are the ones affected the most by Fusarium wilt spread.
“ ere are no more small and medium banana producers. ey used to control half of the industry and based on feedback they have been wiped out,” he said.
Antig said PBGEA hopes the country’s banana exports this year would not drop below the $1-billion mark and would at least achieve $1.1 billion in export receipt.
PSA data showed that the Philippines’s banana exports last year contracted across all its key markets.
Banana shipments to South Korea declined year-on-year by 4 percent to 259,446.52 MT while exports to Saudi Arabia contracted by 31 percent to 57,165.619 MT from 82,738.992 MT.
“Government will do its part by coming up with the orders—you know, what are the rules that will be observed, say, by Bureau of Customs, [the] tariffs. [But the] immediate impact on our markets will depend on how fast our business people, our Philippine companies, our Philippine-based companies will react to the changes, for example in rules of origin and tariff, the products that we import or export,” the Trade chief said. e country’s top negotiator, DTI Assistant Secretary Allan B. Gepty said the effectivity of the RCEP agreement will happen “60 days after the deposit of the instrument of ratification of the Secretary General of ASEAN.”
Gepty said the “immediate impact” of the trade deal will be felt in terms of “wider cumulation” or sourcing of raw materials.
With the Philippines’s inclusion in the RCEP, he said, partly in Filipino, “we are now included in the largest free trade area, so our stakeholders, producers, manufacturers, can now source their raw materials and intermediate goods from these 14 countries.”
Moreover, these stakeholders can now export the products from “their manufacturing activities... here in the country...at a preferential rate or treatment in these RCEP parties,” the country’s chief negotiator explained.
RCEP is a free trade agreement among Asean countries and their trading partners Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea.
By Rene Acosta @reneacostaBM
UNITED States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III has backed the Philippines’ legal rights to operate in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) where a China Coast Guard (CCG) vessel recently twice beamed a military-grade laser at a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessel.
Austin and his Philippine counterpart Carlito Galvez Jr. spoke on Wednesday, Manila time, wherein both leaders discussed “concerning” developments in the South China, including China’s harassment of PCG vessel BRP Malapascua at the Ayungin Shoal on February 6.
Austin, who initiated the call, reiterated the commitment of the US under the Mutual Defense Treaty, which compels America to militarily help the Philippines if it is attacked by China, including in the WPS.
Secretary Austin underscored the United States’ commitment to supporting the lawful rights and operations of the Philippines in the South China Sea, including around the Second Thomas Shoal, which the 2016 Arbitral Tribunal unequivocally ruled is a part of the Philippine exclusive economic zone,” a readout by Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder of the conversation said.
He reiterated that an armed attack on Philippine armed forces, aircraft, and public vessels, including those of its Coast Guard, anywhere in the South China Sea, would invoke US mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 USPhilippines Mutual Defense Treaty,” Ryder added.
T he Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) vessel flashed a laser beam twice on BRP Malapascua while it was supporting the Philippine Navy’s (PNJ) resupply mission for soldiers guarding the Ayungin Shoal. The PCG said this was the second incident in six months that a CCG vessel harassed its ship.
In August last year, the PCG said the CCG also prevented its ships from coming closer to the Ayungin Shoal while providing security to a
