“The Philippines needs to first get its house in order before plunging itself into the trade partnership,” Victor Andres C. Manhit, president of the Stratbase ADR Institute, said in a text message toreferring to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership trade deal currently held up in the Senate.
“Let us stop denying that there will be difficulties and sacrifices,” she said during a hearing on RCEP in December. “Of course, this will happen because this will lead to bulk imports.” Mr. Manhit said that the effect of the deal will depend on the current administration’s ability to create an environment conducive to improved productivity.
Anthony A. Abad, Trade Advisory Services chief executive officer and Abad Alcantara and Associates senior partner, toldby phone that improving the domestic environment should not be the determining factor in ratifying RCEP. All the elements that go into the cost of doing business, Mr. Abad said, will have to be factored in, citing financing, energy, and the cost of labor, among others.
The current situation, Mr. Abad said, highlights the long-running neglect of the agricultural sector, but “RCEP is the one that will provide us the impetus, force us to reform, and plug us into the digital world and the legal world.”
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