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A FREE trade deal with the 27-member bloc European Union (EU) will be “instrumental” in Philippine locators’ goal of making the country the “ideal base” for offshore operations by EU firms, according to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza).
“As one of the investment promotion agencies in the country, this will likewise be instrumental in Peza’s quest towards positioning the Philippines as the ideal base for offshore operations by EU companies eyeing to penetrate the much vibrant Asean and Asia-Pacific markets,” Peza told the BusinessMirror in an e-mail last week.
Moreover, Peza said the EU FTA and the renewed Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) status will help the Philippines in its bid to attract EU foreign direct investments (FDI) from diverse strategic industries, catering to both domestic and export markets.
The investment promotion agency also noted that the renewed talks for a free trade deal show EU’s “commitment” to the sustainable development goals and inclusivity through their engagement with a developing economy like the Philippines.
Last week, European Commission (EC) Executive Vice President (EVP) Valdis Dombrovskis and Philippine Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo E. Pascual formally announced the resumption of FTA negotiations between the EU and the Philippines.
With the EU being the Philippines’s fifth largest trade partner, the FTA with EU would, Peza said, “strengthen both countries’ bilateral trade and economic relations and unlock mutual benefits for the Philippines and the EU.”
The investment promotion agency noted that based on its records, there are 448 registered business enterprises (RBEs) engaged in exports to Europe and 523 RBEs engaged in imports from Europe.
According to Peza, the goods that are being sourced from the European bloc by the Philippines are dominated by machinery, transport equipment, chemicals, and food products; while the Philippines’s main exports to the EU are office and telecommunications equipment, machinery, food and agricultural products, and optical and photographic instruments.
As for the goods being imported and exported by Peza’s registered business enterprises, it noted, “the majority consists of electronics, semiconductors, automotive parts, printers and flexible printed circuits, coil transformers, aircraft galley parts, enterprise solid-state drives, optical coupled isolators, raw materials of insulation anvil, quick crimp, wire anvil, and radiation survey meters, among others.”
The agency also highlighted its collaborations with the 27-member bloc, which mainly focus on sustainability action and reporting, among which is the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), an “international independent standards organization that helps businesses, governments and other organizations understand and communicate their impacts on issues such as climate change, human rights and corruption.”
Early last year, Peza Director General Tereso O. Panga inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with GRI which aims to “contribute to the acceleration and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the advancement of sustainability reporting in the Philippines especially within the ecosystem of export-oriented locators in Peza.”
In the past, Peza also led the government’s participation on European-funded initiatives such as the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) Integrity Pledge, the ECCP Energy Efficiency and Savings Program, and the GTZ Eco-Industrial Development project “to enhance the ease of doing business, commitment to environmental management and corporate governance in the ecozones.”
Image credits: Liskonogaleksey | Dreamstime.com
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