The Trade Department is willing to renegotiate a bilateral free trade agreement with the US, following a suggestion from the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines.
“What we are hoping for in particular is the long-term effectivity of the US GSP [Generalized System of Preferences]. That the Philippines may benefit from this system for a longer period of time and other sectors such as the travel goods will be included in the system,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said over the weekend.
Lopez, however, said the Philippines would first pursue FTA and bilateral trade talks with China, Russia, the EU, Asean and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
The Philippines has been fighting for the inclusion of the leather and travel goods in the US GSP.
The US GSP program covers a total of 5,000 products or tariff lines or roughly 47 percent of the 10,600 total US tariff lines. It includes most dutiable manufactures and semi-manufactures and selected agricultural, fishery and primary industrial products.
Major Philippine exports under the US GSP include measuring and checking instruments, appliances and machines, other cane sugar, telescopic sights for rifles not designed for use with infrared light, other acrylic monomine and their derivatives and insulated electric conductors.
Philippine exports under the US GSP reached $1.25 billion in 2013, making it the fifth largest user of the program.
The Philippines previously filed an intention before the US Trade Representative to export travel goods, duty-free, to the US via the GSP, as early as October 2015.
The country also has an existing bilateral free trade agreement with Japan and recently signed an FTA with the European Free Trade Association which is composed of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.