Trade exec: MSMEs seen to take lead in global trade

CEBU, Philippines - The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) will be the next frontier of global trade growth, a trade official said, expressing optimism more people will benefit from increased trade flows.

Trade Assistant Secretary Ceferino Rodolfo said the Philippines, being a developing nation, will have to work on integrating MSMEs in global trade.

“The meetings and dialogues held in Cebu the past two weeks have yielded specific, concrete and practical initiatives that APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) economies will implement to provide MSMEs wider opportunities to integrate into global or regional trade,” Rodolfo said in a statement.

Ramon Clarete, an economist and dean of the University of the Philippines School of Economics, said integrating MSMEs in global trade will result into more exports, diversified products, increased productivity and improved firm competitiveness.

An Asian Development Bank (ADB) study had said that having more MSMEs in export markets pushes overall economic benefit.

“Economic welfare gains are higher with global MSMEs,” the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) quoted Clarete as saying, pointing out it is therefore practical to seek trade reforms, policies and regulations to put more MSMEs in the global market.

The DTI noted APEC economies had reported during the Third Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM3) here on developments in the implementation of Boracay Action Agenda (BAA) which aims to globalize MSMEs. APEC ministers had endorsed the BAA earlier this year.

The Philippines created a BAA implementation plan which outlines possible work streams and progress indicators per priority action. Priority areas for cooperation identified by BAA include trade facilitation, e-commerce, financing and institutional support and developing women-led MSMEs.

The plan includes, among others, simplifying of processes for rules of origin (ROO), capacity building, complying with regulatory requirements and bridging information requirements of MSMEs seeking to enter the global markets.

The DTI said various technical working groups and committees had been meeting since August 22, 2015 in Cebu to discuss collaborations on trade, investments and economic and technical cooperation among APEC nations. (FREEMAN)