The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is hoping that its trade incentives with the United States (US) will be renewed next year.
Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo said in a recent news briefing that he is expecting the country’s Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) perks to be renewed by the US, but not this year.
“Most likely mare-renew naman si GSP. Kaya lang, sa calendar nila, mukhang hindi siya mare-renew within the year. Most likely baka next year na [Most likely, the GSP will be renewed. However, based on their calendar, it is unlikely to be done this year. Most likely, the renewal would be next year],” he told reporters.
The GSP deal is a unilateral preferential trade arrangement by the US to 122 beneficiary developing countries and least developed beneficiary countries, including the Philippines. It aims to promote economic growth, development and trade by providing duty-free market access to about 5,000 products into the US.
The program expired last December 31, 2020.
“This is important preferential arrangement with the US, taking into account that the US is our third-largest trading partner and second export market. In terms of import sourcing, US is the fourth trading partner,” Trade Assistant Secretary Allan Gepty told the BusinessMirror earlier.
He also pointed out that the US-issued trade perks give the local exporters competitive advantage to other economies.
“It is really important we have this preferential arrangement, although it is unilateral, but just the same our exporters are enjoying comparative advantage with our competitors to the US market because of this US GSP,” Gepty explained.
In addition, the trade official shared that they will be meeting with the US Trade Representatives to raise the concerns about the pending free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations.
Rodolfo said that the Philippines would like to secure “industrial cooperation” with the US to encourage more foreign investments, especially those relating to supply chains that are “critical” to the Western country.
In April, Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel G. Romualdez said that was still awaiting the go-ahead from the US Department of Commerce on how both parties will proceed with the trade deal discussions.
The Philippines has been seeking to strike a trade accord with Washington to lift tariffs on a number of export products, including clothing products.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the country’s export to the US grew by 25.1 percent to $8.91 billion in January to September, from $7.12 billion year-on-year. Imports from US, meanwhile, increased by 9.4 percent to $5.54 billion in the nine-month period from last year’s $5.06 billion.