With the shift of
Philippine trade from traditional markets to free trade agreement (FTA) partners, the country is advised to intensify information dissemination and upgrade and use compatible rules of origin (ROO) to encourage more businesses to use FTAs.
This recommendation was made by a team of Asian Development Bank (ADB) researchers led by Ganeshan Wignaraja and his two Filipino associates, Dorothea Lazaro and Genevieve de Guzman, in a seminar organized recently by Universal Access to Competitiveness and Trade (UACT).
This came after the release of an ADB survey showing that only 20 percent of 155 companies in the electronics, food and electronics were using or have benefited from the FTA.
A lack of information was an impediment to majority of nonuser firms of FTAs even as the study recognized various Philippine efforts to disseminate information and raise industry participation in FTAs involving the country.
To raise overall usage of FTAs, the ADB researchers underscored the need for the Philippines to strengthen information through creation of FTA portal with FTA tariff rates, make ROO database available online and business process and step-by-step procedures.
FTA experts pool, highlight of success stories of other firms, small and medium enterprises-focused outreach and designation of an FTA desk officers in implementing agencies are also crucial, they said.
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