Knowledge Sharing on Trade and Development Issues: The Philippines

The Project at A Glance

The WTO remains one of the primary platforms for setting international rules governing trade. As the scope of discussions continues to evolve in Geneva, it is imperative for countries, including the Philippines, to be familiar with emerging trade issues that go beyond the areas of traditional FTAs and the WTO.

International Economics Consulting Ltd. (IEC), through the Canadian Trade and Investment Facility for Development (CTIF), is providing capacity building and technical advice to Philippine officials’ to craft and develop more sustainable and emerging trade-related issues/provisions in FTAs.

What We Found

Negotiations on trade agreements have become increasingly complex in the last decades with the addition of new emerging issues. While the Philippines is keeping pace with WTO programmes on emerging and non-traditional areas, provisions on emerging issues under bilateral trade agreements are still rarely found in many of Philippines’ FTAs.

Our Team will deliver a capacity building session to the DTI Bureau of International Trade Relations (DTI-BITR) with the aim of fostering practical trade knowledge and understanding of trade issues being discussed under the WTO, bilateral and regional frameworks.

Increasing understanding of sustainable and emerging trade-related provisions– together with possible impacts emerging from incorporating those areas in the Philippines’ future FTAs – will, in turn, help the Philippines’ trade negotiators in formulating strategies and policy options for future engagements.

Our Strategy and Impact

Given the evolving nature and scope of trade agreements, it is important for countries like Philippines to get insights and views of the experts and policymakers on these new and emerging areas and see how they will interplay in crafting trade policies, including making commitments in FTAs.

Our Team will first start with developing a Training Needs Assessment (TNA) to consecutively design a capacity building toolkit. The capacity-building packages will be prepared with the aim of fostering practical trade knowledge and understanding of trade issues being discussed under the WTO, bilateral and regional frameworks. The team will deliver the capacity building sessions, using a combination of in-person and hybrid approaches

Additionally, our Team will develop simple and practical text provisions on the new and emerging areas within the WTO in close cooperation and collaboration with the relevant stakeholders.

Our Core Solutions

With the rapid proliferation of trade agreements worldwide, there are new market and investment opportunities for countries to explore. At International Economics Consulting, based on our extensive experience in international trade, we assist our clients by providing a detailed analysis of the key impacts of new trade agreements on their operations and competitiveness through an assessment of tariff, and non-tariff barriers, provisions on rules of origin, customs efficiency, the effectiveness of transport networks, and sustainability provisions, among others.

We can help assess the opportunities in different markets, determine the feasibility and viability of projects, and benchmark the wider ecosystem to support business growth. We also support clients in navigating the policy landscape regarding international trade by establishing robust monitoring and evaluation framework through sophisticated real-time dashboards and reporting systems to ensure the best outcomes.