European businessmen expressed concern over the diminishing competitiveness of the country vis-à-vis its neighbors, which is exacerbated by the failure of the Philippines to forge bilateral deals with its major trading partners.

“We should remember that countries around us are concluding agreements all the time. We cannot afford to stand still. For example, the Philippines dropped in the ease of doing business index. Has it become harder to do business here? No, not necessarily. It’s just that other countries are always modernizing rules to make it easy for companies to come in,” European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) Vice President Erik Moller Nielsen said.

This, Moller noted, should prompt the Philippines to intensify talks with the European Union (EU) for the quick conclusion of the Philippines-EU free trade agreement (FTA).

The Philippines recently slipped by six notches in the World Bank’s Doing Business index, dragging down its competitiveness in starting a business among Asean countries by one step, or from sixth among 10 nations, to fifth. The proposed Philippines-EU FTA, specifically, is critical for the country, as it will allow the Philippines to gain access to the 500-million-strong EU consumer market, added Florian Gottein, ECCP vice president for Membership and Business Services.

Progress on the FTA, however, has been slow due to inaction on the domestic front on particular economic policies that are at odds with the standards of the EU.

The Philippines and EU have yet to launch formal negotiations and have been at the “pre-scoping” stage for nearly two years now.

For the moment, the clear advantage of the Philippines as a trading and investment partner over other Asean nations is its EU-Generalized System of Preference (EU-GSP+) privilege. The EU-GSP+ gives the Philippines preferential trade treatment, specifically the entry of 6,274 product lines to the EU at zero tariffs for a maximum of 10 years.

The Philippines is the only country in Asean that enjoys this “EU-GSP+” status.

This privilege should be maximized to boost the Philippines’s exports to the EU, Gottein added.

Newly installed ECCP President Guenter Taus said looking forward, the next administration should pursue competitiveness-enhancing initiatives such as the consistency of policies, honoring of contractual obligations by the government and more liberalized construction and engineering sectors.

Source: Business Mirror