Philippines and Chile are steeping up efforts to conclude negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement by end this year and implement the Philippines’ first trade deal with a Latin American country before the term of President Marcos ends in 2028.
Trade and Industry Undersecretary Allan B. Gepty told reporters following a one-week negotiation in Chile. “In terms of progress, we are on track to conclude the Free Trade Agreement negotiations, or we call it actually Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement this year,” said Gepty.
Philippines and Chile are crafting a comprehensive trade agreement, which includes elements like intellectual property, competition, services, investment, financial services, digital trade, the usual trade remedies, customs procedures, trade facilitation, and trade in goods chapters.
“This will be a big milestone for the Philippines as this will be our first Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with the Latin American country,” said Gepty. The planned FTA with Chile is among the nine FTAs the Marcos administration hopes to conclude. Comparatively, Chile has existing 35 FTAs.
“This will expand our FTA network, and this will also support our direction to diversify markets and create opportunities for our businesses, and of course, investors,” said Gepty, who heads the country’s technical team in FTA negotiations.
The last round focused on the subject matters on intellectual property, competition, trade in goods, trade remedies, digital trade, and the Philippines’ offensive interest in micro, small and medium enterprises.
The next round of negotiation is scheduled on October 6-10 in Manila where both parties are expected to stabilize all the FTA chapters. The remaining months of the year will be delegated for fine-tuning the chapters, before proceeding to legal scrubbing. “Our target really is to conclude the negotiation this year,” he said.
The Philippines, he said, was able to advance its areas of interest under the chapters on economic and technical cooperation, although these chapters are deemed challenging. Trade remedies would be aligned with the WTO agreement and domestic laws, rules, and regulations, he said.
Negotiations on digital trade also have to consider evolving rules and disciplines, he said. Intellectual property right is also an offensive interest of the Philippines, being strong in IP protection, not just in the local jurisdiction but also with its trading partners.
Competition is also a very important chapter, Gepty said, to ensure level playing for businesses and investors.
In terms of market access, Gepty said that Chile is a market yet to be explored by Filipino businesses.
Currently, the Philippines exports processed foods to Chile. Interestingly, personal care products, including deodorants, are among Philippines top exports to Chile. Chile’s top exports to the Philippines are wines and salmon, meat, cherries. They are also good in food processing technologies, he said.
“In terms of interest, I would say that there’s a lot of complementarities,” he added, noting that both countries do not compete in their products.
Chile is very strong in mining, where 56 percent of their mineral exports are copper.
“Therefore, a good opportunity for our businesses and local stakeholders to look at Chile as an alternative market, if not main market,” he said. There is also a growing Filipino community in Chile.
The Philippines is also pushing its services exports and for Chilean companies to invest here and make the Philippines its hub for Southeast Asia and RCEP regions.
