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Malacañang will be issuing an executive order that will
give South Korea duty-free access to the Philippine
market for some 8,600 product lines by January 2009.
This is
part of the
Philippines’
commitment under the Asean-Korea Free Trade Agreement (Akfta).
Edgardo
Abon, chairman of the Tariff Commission, told the
BusinessMirror that the 8,600 products represent 90
percent of the more than 9,500 items that the
Philippines listed under the normal tract of the Akfta
tariff-elimination modalities.
Those
listed on the normal lines are products that the
Philippines are willing to accept into the domestic
market at zero duties, as opposed to the sensitive list,
which are the products that will not gain duty-free
access to the country as a form of protection for local
producers.
Abon
said he has given the different local industries and
other stakeholders up to March 25 to submit their
position papers on which products will be included in
the initial 90 percent of the normal tract that will go
ahead of the others for the tariff-elimination scheme.
By 2010
all the products listed by the Philippines on the normal
lines should already be zero.
However,
Abon said the
Philippines
was granted the flexibility to just include in the
tariff-elimination schedule 95 percent of the normal
tract by 2010, and then complete its commitment by 2012.
He urged
the domestic industries to study well which Korean
products, especially the raw materials and intermediate
inputs, that they need.
“I’m
sure we already have an idea what Korean products we
need and don’t,” he said.
This, he
said, is also true in terms of the agricultural products
since the Philippines produces tropical fruits.
The
products the
Philippines
need from Korea, he said, will naturally be among the
first to be given duty-free access.
Korea
has already implemented its part of the
tariff-elimination bargain as it removed the duties for
70 percent of its normal tract in 2006 and 95 percent
this year. It will complete its tariff-elimination
schedule in 2010.
Abon
said the Tariff Commission will make a recommendation to
the Cabinet Committee of Tariff and Related Matters (CTRM)
on the Korean exports that will be given duty-free
access starting next year based on the positions of the
different stakeholders.
After
this, the CTRM will draft the executive order that
Malacañang will be issuing. |
