ASEAN Economic Ministers Retreat in Cambodia

Asean neighbors warn RP: Heed tariff commitments

Business Mirror
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Written by Max V. de Leon / Reporter
Wednesday, 06 May 2009 22:33

SOUTHEAST Asian economic ministers reminded the Philippines at the just-concluded Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Economic Ministers Retreat in Cambodia to abide by its commitment to eliminate all its intra-regional trade import duties from January 1 next year.

Commitments by the members to tariff removal is under their Common Effective Preferential Tariff (Afta-CEPT) scheme under the Asean Trade in Goods Agreement.

The Philippines still has a remaining 20 percent of all tariff lines included in the CEPT liberalization commitments to remove, according to Trade Senior Undersecretary Thomas Aquino, who attended the meeting.

He noted, however, that local trade groups are against such an action—at least until some unspecified later time. They argue that removal of the tariffs would expose domestic manufacturers to severed competition, especially at a time when there is a financial crisis in the world.

These groups include the Federation of Philippine Industries and the Fair Trade Alliance. In their request to the government to postpone its CEPT commitments, they said the remaining 20 percent are the most critical lines, so intense competition should be avoided in these products, especially when the world is in recession.

The Asean also wants the Philippines to commit to a schedule and an end-date for rice, and a resolution of the sugar tariff issue.

“The retreat reaffirmed that these tariff schedules give exporters the certainty they need about their markets, and each member was reminded to deliver its schedule on time, so that everyone may enjoy the benefits of [the regional trading agreement]. The retreat, for instance, urged Vietnam to deliver their petroleum products schedules as soon as possible,” a trade department summary said.

The ministers also agreed that significant measures should be selected to show how Asean and the members performed under their commitments to achieve a free flow of goods, free flow of services, constructive investment regimes, the Asean Priority Integration Sectors, transportation infrastructure and SMEs.

A major outcome was a set of plans for better mechanisms to monitor performance against the regional economic blueprint.

Other outcomes included a constructive dialogue on trade financing, realignment of the format of ministers’ consultations with the private sector, and plans for a special trade fair-cum-forum for garments and textiles, to pilot the new focus on issue- or industry-specific private sector engagement.