The president of France is expected to embark on his first state visit to the Philippines next year with improving trade relations included in his agenda, according to the French ambassador to the Philippines.
Ambassador Gilles Garachon told reporters at the sidelines of the French-Philippines United Action media briefing that the incumbent French executive head of state, François Hollande, will visit the country in 2015, which marks Hollande’s first trip to Southeast Asia during his term.
The envoy added that trade ties between Manila and Paris will not be affected significantly by reported plans from Philippine Airlines to review the carrier’s order of aircrafts from French firm Autobus.
“The state visit will be in the first semester but we have not decided on a date yet…this shows that we want to be closer to the Philippines. The very fruitful visit of your President [Aquino] in October allowed for the visit of the French president. The visit is to have more substantial political, economic, and multicultural relations with the Philippines,” Garachon said.
Garachon said, on the economic front, that although the Philippines and France enjoy a €2-billion bilateral trade, this can be further improved from both sides.
Reports of PAL’s plans to adjust its order of aircrafts from French company Airbus will unlikely drag down bilateral trade growth Garachon said, although the Philippines’s imports may decrease due to the possible scaling back of PAL’s aircraft purchase. Garachon said he is not privy to the talks between the two carriers but said there is “there is plenty of room” to offset the impact on overall trade.
Given that aircrafts are the top imported commodity of the Philippines from France, Garachon stressed the need for the Philippines to maximize its other strengths in exports, such as food and beverage, furniture and electronics, and, likewise, for the French to be more receptive to Philippine exported goods.
“I think we have plenty of room to offset the possible decline because of the aircrafts but we have to increase the rest, we, the French, have to buy more from the Philippines,” Garachon said.
Foreign trade data from the Philippine Statistics Authority for the first semester showed that the European Union accounted for 11.4 percent of the country’s total external trade in goods, or $7.004 billion of the total $61.264 billion.
Of the 11.4 percent trade with the EU, France was the second top trading partner behind Germany, taking up 22.3 percent of the $ 7.004 billion trade in goods.