THE TRADE department has proposed capacity-building programs, to be supported by the Partnership for Growth United States-led development initiative, to help the country prepare for joining negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade deal, an official said.
This came as Philippine officials met with United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk last week for routine talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement signed by both countries in 1989.
“The Partnership for Growth covers several areas such as transparency, governance, fiscal prudence and responsibility, and regulatory reforms, and we have submitted proposals that can go into that program,” Adrian S. Cristobal, Jr., undersecretary for international trade, said at the sidelines of the department’s budget hearing at the Senate last Monday.
Managed in the Philippines by the Finance department, the assistance program is the latest effort by the administration of President Barack H. Obama to promote broad-based growth among emerging economies through its Global Development Policy. Other countries covered by the initiative, administered by the US Agency for International Development, are El Salvador, Ghana, and Tanzania.
“We need trade policy analysis training. We also need the software and training to do computer-generated simulations of the economy and conduct trade impact analyses. There is also a proposal to assist in training for formal trade negotiations,” Mr. Cristobal said.
“The TPP is a comprehensive and ambitious agreement. That means it’s not just trade in goods and tariffs, but it also includes services, environmental standards, intellectual property rights, consistency in regulatory regimes, and labor,” he explained. “Some of these are challenging for developing countries like us in need of internal reforms.”
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By: E. J. Diaz
Source: Business World, Oct. 5, 2011
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