THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is cool to the proposal creating a separate Office of the Philippine Trade Representative (OPTR) and just called for the strengthening of its international trade-relations unit instead.

Trade Senior Undersecretary Thomas Aquino said while the DTI recognizes the need to upgrade the current decision-making process, “it is not inclined toward proposals that will carve out parts of the DTI to form the OPTR.”

“The DTI believes that a natural link exists between the issues to be negotiated and the present regulatory framework within the ambit of its functions,” Aquino said in his address at the Consultation on Regional Trade Agreements organized by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Wednesday at the Bayview Park Hotel in Manila.

Aquino said what is being done by the DTI now is expand the current negotiating arm of the agency, the Bureau of International Trade Relations (BITR), under its rationalization plan. He admitted that the BITR is spread thin at this time and the Cabinet Trade and Related Matters (CTRM)-based process finds it difficult to attend to the demands of the negotiations.

This is why there is pressure to create the OPTR, and bills on this are now pending in both chambers of Congress.

The Fair Trade Alliance (FTA), one of the staunch supporters of the OPTR creation, said there is currently an obvious lack of cohesiveness in the government’s negotiating bodies for the industries, agriculture and services sectors that weakens the country’s ability to get a better bargain in trade agreements with other countries.

Rene Ofreneo, FTA convenor, said having a centralized trade-negotiating body with a high level of authority will allow the country to strategize better across all sectors.

Ofreneo said this is why a mere department unit like the BITR will not suffice. He said the OPTR should be directly under the Office of the President so its decision-making power will be of the same level as that of a regular government agency.

The OPTR will also take care of the data gathering and do studies needed in coming up with trade-negotiating strategies.

Currently, Ofreneo said the country is dependent on outside sources for studies, such as those being done by multilateral institutions.

“The DTI is busy with its own mission and it does not relate well with the agriculture and services concerns,” he said. In the US, Ofreneo said the Office of the US Trade Representative even has over 2,000 subcommittees so it could adequately address the concerns of the different sectors and industries.

The proposal for the creation of the OPTR, Ofreneo said, failed to make it through the two previous Congress, but it is gaining more support in the current batch of lawmakers.

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THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is cool to the proposal creating a separate Office of the Philippine Trade Representative (OPTR) and just called for the strengthening of its international trade-relations unit instead.

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