AN official of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said the Philippines can fully benefit from the economic integration of the Asean this year with proper infrastructure to accommodate regional airlines and the country’s exporters to take advantage of free-trade flows.
Trade Assistant Secretary Ceferino S. Rodolfo said the Philippines has complied up to 95 percent of commitments to the Asean Economic Integration (AEC), but will not benefit fully if there are not enough infrastructure for trade expansion, such as air transportation.
He said the Philippines has signed 15 measures that can be implemented at the national levels, two of them on air transportation that open up Philippine air zones to airlines from Asean countries.
“The problem of the Philippines is not on implementing AEC policy commitments at the national level but in [establishing] enough infrastructure to prepare for the Asean integration,” Rodoldo told the fourth Strategic Management Convention at the De La Salle University last Saturday.
He said the country’s international airport can only accommodate a limited number of airplanes and is now facing runway congestion. “These issues should be solved at the national level.”
“We are faced with an issue of domestic competitiveness rather than regional commitments [in the AEC integration],” Rodolfo said.
He said Philippine exporters should also take advantage of the European Union (EU) Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+), which gives Philippine exporters zero tariffs on more than 6,000 product lines. The Philippines is only one of 13 countries with access to this export privilege to the rich EU market.