US official urges RP to honor its commitment to liberalize trade

US Department of Commerce Assistant Secretary for market access and compliance William H.Lash is urging the Philippine government not to turn its back in its commitment to proceed with trade liberalization, even as Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas II follows a policy of slowing down on trade liberalization.

In a press briefing last Friday, Roxas confirmed the government’s decision to go slow on tariff reduction.

Roxas said he is merely following President Arroyo’s instructions which she reiterated during a speech before local stock brokers at the Philippine Stock Exchange last Friday.

During that speech, President Arroyo said "unbridled globalization is no longer in vogue."

She cited the 1997 Asian crisis, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States and the country’s revenue shortfall as part of the reason for the policy shift.

She ordered the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Tariff Commission "not to be married to the idea that our tariff program can no longer be revised."

She said: "I am adopting the policy to slow the program pace only to the AFTA (ASEAN Free Trade Area) and WTO (World Trade Organization) minimums and to take full advantage of all exception windows allowed such as for the petrochemical industry."

Roxas said the shift from rapid compliance to slow and gradual compliance was adopted last year and is intended to give local industries some breathing room.

Government, Roxas said, is set to review the country’s tariff structure starting this month.

The objective of the review is to determine whether to go ahead with the tariff reduction as committed or to slow down on compliance for products which are manufactured locally.

For products which are not manufactured locally and are used as raw materials by local industries Roxas said the Philippine government’s, policy is to proceed with the tariff reduction.