The government anticipates a boost in business partnerships with US firms as a high-powered US trade delegation arrives next week, a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) official said on Saturday.
In a news forum in Quezon City, DTI Foreign Trade Service Officer Jollan Margaret Llaneza reported that the US trade delegation “will be a high-level delegation comprised of 22 business delegates and C-level representatives from strategic sectors.
“Our goal here is to foster the relationship between our Philippine business sector and their American counterparts, so we can have commercially meaningful partnerships,” she added.
The White House also made this announcement in a March 7 press release along with the names of individuals who are part of the US Presidential Trade and Investment Mission to the Philippines set to visit the country from March 11 (Monday) to March 12 (Tuesday).
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo leads the upcoming visit, which fulfills a promise made by US President Joe Biden during President Ferdinand Marcos’ US trip last year.
Among the members of the US delegation are Filipino-American artist Allan Pineda, also known as ‘Apl.de.Ap,’ who will be representing his foundation; United Airlines president Brett Hart, Capital One Philippines president Sara Murphy, and US-ASEAN Business Council president and CEO Ted Osius.
Raimondo and her team are scheduled to meet with both President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in Malacañang and Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual before the President’s flight to Germany.
The US remains a vital trading partner for the Philippines, ranking among the top three alongside Japan and China, according to Llaneza.
“If you notice, the US and Japan are actually our strategic partners. So, if you observed earlier in the discussion, they were talking about other defense treaties – so, that’s part of our overall strategic partnership with the United States,” Llaneza said.
“In Japan, we have policy instruments that shape our economic relations. We have a bilateral free trade agreement with Japan called the Philippines-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement or JPEPA, and we also have an agreement with them under the context of ASEAN,” the DTI official pointed out.
The Philippines’ free trade agreement with China falls under the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement. Both Japan and China are also members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP).
Llaneza concluded by highlighting the advantages these trade agreements offer the Philippines, including significantly reduced tariffs and simplified market access for Filipino exporters.