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United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents of this newsletter are
the sole responsibility of the TRADE Project and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or
the United States Government.
Clockwise, from top left: COP Dr. Cielito Habito moderates a panel
discussion; DTI Undersecretary Adrian Cristobal Jr and Secretary Gregory
Domingo face the press at the media briefing; members of the large multi-
sectoral audience raise questions and concerns during the open forum.
APRIL 2014
AEC Forum
shows strong
multi-sectoral
interest
As the country gears up for the ASEAN Economic
Community (AEC) in 2015, government is calling for
stronger collaboration with the private sector to help the
Philippines take full advantage of opportunities brought
about by regional economic integration. The Department of
Trade and Industry (DTI), as chair of the inter-agency
Committee for ASEAN Economic Community (CAEC), is at
the forefront of government preparations for AEC 2015.
The first large-scale forum to raise awareness and proper
understanding of the AEC as well as secure wider buy-in and
convergence towards a national AEC game plan was held last
10 April.

TRADE collaborated closely with DTI/CAEC in hosting the
forum which drew more than 600 participants from
government, business and industry, academe, civil society
and media. The events high level of attendance signaled
great multi-sectoral interest in governments initiatives
towards enhancing Philippine competitiveness. It featured
plenary sessions, short presentations and discussions, which
ended with an open forum where participants raised
concerns regarding standards, tariffs and subsidies for local
industries expected to be most affected by the regional
integration.

Chief of Party Dr. Cielito Habito clarified the misconception
that AEC would unleash a tsunami of ASEAN products
into the Philippines, saying that, if at all, this should have
already happened back in 2010 when all but a few traded
goods began to be traded at zero tariffs across ASEAN. He
cited the ASEAN Secretariats latest scorecard on the
member-countries AEC Blueprint commitments that puts
level of members compliance in the range of 84 to 89%,
with the Philippines at 87.2%. This means AEC is not just
coming, but is mostly already here, he said.

Dr. Habito also highlighted elements in the AEC Game Plan
for the benefit of small and medium enterprises, including
DTIs initiatives on clustering and shared service facilities, a
nationwide information campaign on Doing Business in Free
Trade Agreements (DBFTA), preparation of dozens of
industry roadmaps, and work for a Fair Competition Law in
Congress, among many others.

TRADE is organizing other AEC-related events and is lining
up, with DTIs Bureau of International Trade Relations
TRADE conducting
two surveys on competition

TRADE, in collaboration with the Center for
Advancement of Trade Integration and Facilitation
(CATIF), has contracted the Philippine Social Research
Center (PSRC) to develop and implement two
stakeholder surveys designed to measure 1) public
awareness of market competition and 2) stakeholder
perception of the quality of regulation and its impact on
competition in the Philippines. This is geared towards
enabling TRADE to expand alliances with government
agencies and the private sector, and also to raise
awareness and support for competition law and policy.
The surveys are currently being conducted. PSRC has
tentatively targeted late May for submission of raw data to
CATIF/TRADE. Final reports are expected to be
completed by June.
(BITR), a series of roundtable discussions towards the
formulation of an AEC Compliance Agenda. The Project will
also formulate with DTI/CAEC a Communications strategy as
the 3rd component of the AEC Game Plan: Intensive
Communications with Stakeholders. The other 3 strategies are
Compliance, Competitiveness and Collaboration.


TRADE PROJECT STAFF
3F HERCO Center, 114 Benavidez St., Legazpi Village Makati City 1229

Chief of Party: Dr. Cielito F. Habito Deputy Chief of Party: Gareth J. Davies Senior Adviser for Trade and
Investment Policy: Dr. Ramon Clarete Trade Policy Specialist: Myrene Bedao Component Lead for Trade
Facilitation: Cecilia V. Reyes Trade Facilitation Adviser: Salvador M. Buban Customs Adviser: Edmund C. Guamen
Component Lead for Competition Policy: Gigo Alampay Research Associate for Competition Policy: Irish Krystle S.
Almeida Component Lead for Outreach and Advocacy: Katherine Fernandez Communications Specialist: Kimi Tuvera
M & E and Reporting Specialist: Rebecca Hoffman Research Assistant: Abigail Dumalus Project Associate: Sofia Felice A.
Navarro Operations & Finance Manager: Paulino B. Bejer Program Officer: Mitos Q. Aldave Administrative
Coordinator: Rose Catindoy Administrative Assistant: Myra Sabellano General Services: Jennifer Joy I. Hernando
2 TRADE / APRIL 2014
TRADE and the Export Development Council (EDC) have
been holding a series of workshops throughout the months of
March and April to conduct a line-by-line analysis of the
proposed Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) bill
pending in Congress. The workshops, held twice weekly since
10 March at the PhilExport Building along Roxas Boulevard,
are participated in by the EDC Networking Committee on
Legislative Matters (NCLM) technical working group (TWG)
on the CMTA and representatives from other relevant
government agencies. TRADEs Customs and International
Trade Expert Alex Gaticales facilitates the discussions. Atty.
Gaticales and Trade Facilitation Lead Cecilia Reyes serve as
resource persons on Customs.

The CMTA is meant to update the current Tariff and Customs
Code of the Philippines to enable Philippine Customs to
implement various international trade and customs standards,
measures and practices, as well as modernize its operations
with the application of appropriate risk management
techniques and information technology, thus increasing the
level of transparency and predictability of customs processes.
The line-by-line gap analysis was drawn up with initial
recommendations by the PCCI and is designed to make sure
that provisions of the draft bill are consistent not only with
the Revised Kyoto Convention, to which the Philippines is a
CMTA Gap Analysis
to ensure RKC compliance
signatory, but also other international agreements such as the
ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and the Philippines-US
Trade Facilitation Protocol (PUSTFP), and the recent WTO
Bali Accord.

The EDC is a public-private partnership with members from
the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the National
Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Philippine
Exporters Federation, and representatives from the
agriculture and labor sectors, among others. In the course of
the NCLM-TWGs work, a larger number of gaps that need
addressing was discovered, and additional sessions held in
order to address the number of compliance issues.

Following the final workshop, EDC will compile a substitute
bill with newly crafted or revised provisions for submission to
Congress.
COP pushes AEC outreach

The TRADE Project is geared to assist the Philippine
government optimize its membership in the ASEAN Economic
Community (AEC) and make good on its commitments under
the AEC Blueprint. With full integration coming by end of 2015,
Chief of Party Dr. Cielito Habito continued to push the Projects
outreach and advocacy efforts in April by giving presentations
about the AEC at three separate engagements where he was
invited as a resource/guest speaker.

On 7 April, Dr. Habito spoke at the latest Trade and Industry
Development (TID) Talks, a regular lecture series hosted by the
Department of Trade and Industry Industry Development and
Trade Policy Group (DTI-IDTPG) for DTI officers and staff
where he gave an overview of ways to accelerate Philippine advantage in AEC 2015. This was followed on 21 April by a
seminar held at the Ateneo Rockwell Campus for regional officers of the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) who expressed
strong appreciation for Dr. Habitos insights, as these gave them a better understanding of AEC and AEC-related issues.
Finally, on 24 April, the TRADE COP gave a presentation on opportunities and challenges from the AEC and implications
for Philippine economic performance to the German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (GPCCII). The
talk was well-received and elicited strongly supportive comments and inquiries on doing business in the larger ASEAN
TRADEs Alex Gaticales (extreme left) shares his insights with
the EDC technical working group at the CMTA workshop.
COP Dr. Cielito Habito receives a token of appreciation
from German Club President Thorsten Franz.