Two leading business groups expressed support for the Senate ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership mega free-trade deal, arguing that the country cannot afford to be left behind much further. | JeromeAningINQ /PDI
AmCham said the Philippine ratification of RCEP will boost the country’s post-pandemic recovery.
He said ratification by the Senate “will [make] us competitive with others, at least to a certain degree. We can’t afford not to have trade agreements and, at the same time, to not be part of it. Everyone has joined already.”“We have lessons in the past, we enter into negotiations without involving the private sector. And by the time we are allowed to take part, there are already promised safeguards, especially in the agriculture sector, that have disappeared, so there are bad lessons,” he said.
“The challenge here is, of course, our agri-micro farmers [who] will have to really step up. And this is an area that is a weak point in the country at this point in time,” he said. Concepcion said he supported the ratification of RCEP, noting that “in terms of trading, if we’re not in, we will not be able to trade with all the other [countries] at that level, because certain tariffs will go down.”RCEP is a free-trade pact among nations that cover 50.4 percent and 67.3 percent of the Philippines’ export and import markets, respectively, and 58 percent of the country’s sources of foreign investments.
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