The Department of Trade and Industry plans to explore free trade agreements with the largest economies in Latin America next year to boost exports and imports, a top official said.
Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said the Philippines which signed a joint economic cooperation with Chile would benefit from similar agreements with other countries in South and Central America.
“I believe we should start looking at the bigger economies like Argentina, Brazil and Chile in South America and Mexico in Central America. Those are the ones that can open their market to us and our market to them,” said Pascual.
Pascual said Central and South American markets are more open for possible bilateral agreements because, “we have complementary export goods.”
The signing of the JEC between the Philippines and Chile is a step towards forging an FTA, Pascual said.
He said the JEC with Chile is a significant milestone for both economies as it represents the first trade and investment mechanism of the Philippines to formally engage the South American region.
The Philippines now has free trade agreements with Japan and the European Free Trade Association which includes Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. It is also a part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations where seven FTAs are in force.
The Philippines substantially concluded the FTA negotiations with South Korea and signed early this year a joint statement with the intent to pursue the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with the United Arab Emirates.
The DTI said that at the regional level, the Philippines is a part of the recently-launched ASEAN Canada FTA negotiations. It is also negotiating for the upgrade of ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area.
ASEAN as a bloc is also discussing FTAs with other countries for possible review or upgrade, the DTI said.
The department said that for countries or trading partners where the Philippines does not have FTA arrangements, it adopts a joint economic cooperation mechanism to discuss several topics such as trade, investment, market access issues, capacity building and economic cooperation. The Philippines has 32 JECs with its trading partners.
The Philippines is also working on the concurrence by the Philippine Senate of the country’s accession to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership which the DTI targets to accomplish by the first quarter of 2023.