This newsletter is made possible by the generous support of the American People through the

United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this newsletter are the sole responsibility of the TRADE Project and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

Clockwise, from top left: COP Dr. Cielito Habito moderates a panel

discussion; DTI Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal Jr and Secretary Gregory

Domingo face the press at the media briefing; members of the large multi-

sectoral audience raise questions and concerns during the open forum.

APRIL 2014

AEC Forum

shows strong

multi-sectoral

interest As the country gears up for the ASEAN Economic

Community (AEC) in 2015, government is calling for

stronger collaboration with the private sector to help the

Philippines take full advantage of opportunities brought

about by regional economic integration. The Department of

Trade and Industry (DTI), as chair of the inter-agency

Committee for ASEAN Economic Community (CAEC), is at

the forefront of government preparations for AEC 2015.

The first large-scale forum to raise awareness and proper

understanding of the AEC as well as secure wider buy-in and

convergence towards a national AEC game plan was held last

10 April.

TRADE collaborated closely with DTI/CAEC in hosting the

forum which drew more than 600 participants from

government, business and industry, academe, civil society

and media. The event’s high level of attendance signaled

great multi-sectoral interest in government’s initiatives

towards enhancing Philippine competitiveness. It featured

plenary sessions, short presentations and discussions, which

ended with an open forum where participants raised

concerns regarding standards, tariffs and subsidies for local

industries expected to be most affected by the regional

integration.

Chief of Party Dr. Cielito Habito clarified the misconception

that AEC would unleash “a tsunami” of ASEAN products

into the Philippines, saying that, if at all, this “should have

already happened back in 2010” when all but a few traded

goods began to be traded at zero tariffs across ASEAN. He

cited the ASEAN Secretariat’s latest scorecard on the

member-countries’ AEC Blueprint commitments that puts

level of members’ compliance in the range of 84 to 89%,

with the Philippines at 87.2%. “This means AEC is not just

coming, but is mostly already here,” he said.

Dr. Habito also highlighted elements in the AEC Game Plan

for the benefit of small and medium enterprises, including

DTI’s initiatives on clustering and shared service facilities, a

nationwide information campaign on Doing Business in Free

Trade Agreements (DBFTA), preparation of dozens of

industry roadmaps, and work for a Fair Competition Law in

Congress, among many others.

TRADE is organizing other AEC-related events and is lining

up, with DTI’s Bureau of International Trade Relations

TRADE conducting

two surveys on competition

TRADE, in collaboration with the Center for

Advancement of Trade Integration and Facilitation

(CATIF), has contracted the Philippine Social Research

Center (PSRC) to develop and implement two

stakeholder surveys designed to measure 1) public

awareness of market competition and 2) stakeholder

perception of the quality of regulation and its impact on

competition in the Philippines. This is geared towards

enabling TRADE to expand alliances with government

agencies and the private sector, and also to raise

awareness and support for competition law and policy.

The surveys are currently being conducted. PSRC has

tentatively targeted late May for submission of raw data to

CATIF/TRADE. Final reports are expected to be

completed by June.

(BITR), a series of roundtable discussions towards the

formulation of an AEC Compliance Agenda. The Project will

also formulate with DTI/CAEC a Communications strategy as

the 3rd component of the AEC Game Plan: Intensive

Communications with Stakeholders. The other 3 strategies are

Compliance, Competitiveness and Collaboration.

TRADE PROJECT STAFF 3F HERCO Center, 114 Benavidez St., Legazpi Village Makati City 1229

Chief of Party: Dr. Cielito F. Habito • Deputy Chief of Party: Gareth J. Davies • Senior Adviser for Trade and

Investment Policy: Dr. Ramon Clarete • Trade Policy Specialist: Myrene Bedaño • Component Lead for Trade

Facilitation: Cecilia V. Reyes • Trade Facilitation Adviser: Salvador M. Buban • Customs Adviser: Edmund C. Guamen •

Component Lead for Competition Policy: Gigo Alampay • Research Associate for Competition Policy: Irish Krystle S.

Almeida • Component Lead for Outreach and Advocacy: Katherine Fernandez • Communications Specialist: Kimi Tuvera •

M & E and Reporting Specialist: Rebecca Hoffman • Research Assistant: Abigail Dumalus • Project Associate: Sofia Felice A.

Navarro • Operations & Finance Manager: Paulino B. Bejer • Program Officer: Mitos Q. Aldave • Administrative

Coordinator: Rose Catindoy • Administrative Assistant: Myra Sabellano • General Services: Jennifer Joy I. Hernando

2 TRADE / APRIL 2014

TRADE and the Export Development Council (EDC) have

been holding a series of workshops throughout the months of

March and April to conduct a line-by-line analysis of the

proposed Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) bill

pending in Congress. The workshops, held twice weekly since

10 March at the PhilExport Building along Roxas Boulevard,

are participated in by the EDC Networking Committee on

Legislative Matters’ (NCLM) technical working group (TWG)

on the CMTA and representatives from other relevant

government agencies. TRADE’s Customs and International

Trade Expert Alex Gaticales facilitates the discussions. Atty.

Gaticales and Trade Facilitation Lead Cecilia Reyes serve as

resource persons on Customs.

The CMTA is meant to update the current Tariff and Customs

Code of the Philippines to enable Philippine Customs to

implement various international trade and customs standards,

measures and practices, as well as modernize its operations

with the application of appropriate risk management

techniques and information technology, thus increasing the

level of transparency and predictability of customs processes.

The line-by-line gap analysis was drawn up with initial

recommendations by the PCCI and is designed to make sure

that provisions of the draft bill are consistent not only with

the Revised Kyoto Convention, to which the Philippines is a

CMTA Gap Analysis

to ensure RKC compliance

signatory, but also other international agreements such as the

ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and the Philippines-US

Trade Facilitation Protocol (PUSTFP), and the recent WTO

Bali Accord.

The EDC is a public-private partnership with members from

the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the National

Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Philippine

Exporters Federation, and representatives from the

agriculture and labor sectors, among others. In the course of

the NCLM-TWG’s work, a larger number of gaps that need

addressing was discovered, and additional sessions held in

order to address the number of compliance issues.

Following the final workshop, EDC will compile a substitute

bill with newly crafted or revised provisions for submission to

Congress.

COP pushes AEC outreach

The TRADE Project is geared to assist the Philippine

government optimize its membership in the ASEAN Economic

Community (AEC) and make good on its commitments under

the AEC Blueprint. With full integration coming by end of 2015,

Chief of Party Dr. Cielito Habito continued to push the Project’s

outreach and advocacy efforts in April by giving presentations

about the AEC at three separate engagements where he was

invited as a resource/guest speaker.

On 7 April, Dr. Habito spoke at the latest Trade and Industry

Development (TID) Talks, a regular lecture series hosted by the

Department of Trade and Industry – Industry Development and

Trade Policy Group (DTI-IDTPG) for DTI officers and staff

where he gave an overview of ways to accelerate Philippine advantage in AEC 2015. This was followed on 21 April by a

seminar held at the Ateneo Rockwell Campus for regional officers of the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) who expressed

strong appreciation for Dr. Habito’s insights, as these gave them a better understanding of AEC and AEC-related issues.

Finally, on 24 April, the TRADE COP gave a presentation on opportunities and challenges from the AEC and implications

for Philippine economic performance to the German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (GPCCII). The

talk was well-received and elicited strongly supportive comments and inquiries on doing business in the larger ASEAN

TRADE’s Alex Gaticales (extreme left) shares his insights with

the EDC technical working group at the CMTA workshop.

COP Dr. Cielito Habito receives a token of appreciation

from German Club President Thorsten Franz.