{"id":173687,"date":"2018-07-28T07:44:56","date_gmt":"2018-07-28T11:44:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=173687"},"modified":"2018-07-28T07:44:56","modified_gmt":"2018-07-28T11:44:56","slug":"ph-us-governments-getting-ready-fta-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/07\/28\/ph-us-governments-getting-ready-fta-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"PH, US governments getting ready for FTA talks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: DUTERTE-TRUMP MEETING. President Rodrigo R. Duterte and US President Donald Trump discuss matters during a bilateral meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on November 13, 2017. (Presidential Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u00a0— The Philippine and United States governments are now making internal preparations ahead of formal talks on a possible expansion of trade relations, a senior trade official told reporters Friday.<\/p>\n

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo said the longtime allies will be engaging in discussions for a possible free trade agreement (FTA).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I can confirm is that talks are ongoing, both the talks between the US and the Philippines and the internal processes of both sides. We do not want to preempt the processor and the result. But the intention is to come to a decision whatever will that be — on whether to start an FTA negotiation or not,\u201d added Rodolfo.<\/p>\n

United States Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer, in his opening statement during a Senate hearing, mentioned that his office is \u201cactively engaging in efforts to commence new trade agreements\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are speaking with a number of countries in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa,\u201d Lighthizer said.<\/p>\n

Last May, a USTR delegation led by its representative for Asia Jeffrey Gerrish visited the Philippines and met with Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez, and Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pi\u00f1ol.<\/p>\n

During the meeting, both DTI and the USTR reaffirmed their interest for exploratory discussions for a possible FTA.<\/p>\n

The Philippine government has raised to US President Donald Trump its interest to have a free trade deal with the US during Trump\u2019s visit in the country when it hosted the 31st ASEAN Summit in November 2017.<\/p>\n

The Philippines\u2019 suggestion was then welcomed by Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this ongoing uncertainty in global environment where there are more protectionist measures being instituted by both sides and there is fear in escalation of trade war, I think it is imperative for us to discuss and to ensure that our exporters will continue to have good access to key markets and that include also the US,\u201d Rodolfo noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of our products that go to other countries as part of the value chain end up in the US. Preserving and securing and enhancing market access to the US is very important. It can come by way of the FTA, or some other ways. But what is important is that we are looking closely at it and closely discussing it with the US,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Bilateral trade between the two countries last year reached USD20 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— The Philippine and United States governments are now making internal preparations ahead of formal talks on a possible expansion …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":169306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}