RP not backing out of its trade lib commitments

Trade and Industry Secretary Cesar V. Purisima has assured US Assistant Secretary of Commerce William H. Hash III that the Philippines is not backing out of its commitment to liberalize trade.

Purisima was reacting to Lash’s observation that the Philippines has been slowing down on its tariff reduction program.

"What happened is we just slowed down. Before we were to fast out of the gates," Purisima said.

The DTI head assured Lash that "we are not pulling back on our commitments. We just realized that we went too far out on certain items before our local industry could adjust to global competition."

Purisima also clarified to Lash that the higher tariff imposed by the Philippines on some US products were still lower than the tariffs imposed by other countries in the region except Singapore and China.

More specifically, Purisima said, only $80- million worth of US exports to the Philippines are affected by the higher import tariffs.

Two-way trade between the Philippines and the United States amounts to $13 billion annually.

On the continuing intellectually property rights (IPR) violations, Purisima also assured Lash that he supports the protection of IPR rights.

"I told him I don’t have any disagreement with him. I support the protection of IPR," Purisima said.

Lash had earlier said that he would discuss with Purisima how the government could step further its crackdown on IPR violations.

According to Lash, the US estimated that it lost about $116 million from IPR violations from the Philippines alone last year.

The Philippines still ranks as the world’s seventh leader exporter of pirated goods to the US.

Because of the Philippines’ continuing IPR violations, it remains in the US’s 301 Priority Watchlist.