Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III ordered Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña to meet with his counterpart in the Chinese government to check the narrowing but still significant gap in China’s exports and imports.
Dominguez said official trade data showed the estimated discrepancy between registered Chinese exports to the Philippines and registered Philippine imports from China were declining but still very large, with the gap reported at 60 percent in 2010; 57 percent in 2015, 48.7 percent in 2016; and 48 percent in the January-July period of this year.
“I’ve asked Sid Lapeña to invite his Chinese counterpart to sit down and review the data,” Dominguez told reporters.
Data showed that in 2010, registered Chinese exports to the Philippines reached $11.56 billion, but Philippine imports from China as reported by the Philippine Statistics Authoritywas only at $4.628 billion, resulting in a trade discrepancy of 60 percent or $6.936 billion. In the first seven months of 2017, Chinese exports to the Philippines hit $17.77 billion, while the PSA reported that imports from China reached only $9.24 billion, or a discrepancy of 48 percent or $8.53 billion.