‘Government should help exporters hurdle EU barriers’

MANILA, Philippines — The government must seek the removal of some trade barriers imposed by the European states to allow exporters to maximize the opportunities of the country’s prospective free trade agreement (FTA) with Europe, an industry group said.

Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said exporters face various problems, from high shipping costs to lack of raw materials, that hinder them from expanding their shipments to Europe.

On top of these, certain non-tariff barriers like stringent rules of origin by Europe may stifle the Philippines’s exports from taking advantage of preferential treatment under an FTA, Ortiz-Luis added.

“They cannot make use of an FTA because the raw materials come from China. Because we have no textile industry here and they are not qualified under FTA rules,” he told reporters in a recent interview.

“We need to negotiate that some of the non-tariff barriers be dismantled so that we can be in an equal footing with other Asian countries in Europe,” he added.

Ortiz-Luis also cited that issues being raised by Europe in terms of climate change and labor could also pose as a challenge to exporters.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of protocols in a free trade agreement and many of them are hard to comply with,” he said.

Ortiz-Luis urged the government to involve the private sector more in negotiating the FTA to ensure that the challenges being faced by stakeholders are addressed.

Nonetheless, Ortiz-Luis said an FTA with Europe is a welcome development as the Philippines is catching up with its peers among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that have around 12 to 13 trade agreements already.

Earlier this week, the Philippines and the EU announced that they have restarted their talks for an FTA.