The Philippines is looking into the timeliness of joining the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), citing the need to further “analyze”
conditions that may or may not benefit the country at this time, President
Aquino said on Wednesday.
“We’re still studying whether it
will be timely for us to join it at this time,” Mr. Aquino said in a forum with
the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, when asked about the
government’s position on the TPP.
He said that “there are several
conditions that we are still analyzing whether or not it will redound to our
benefit to engage in it at this point in time” but the President did not
elaborate.
A reported impediment to
Philippine membership in the TPP is its constitutional restriction on foreign
ownership, among others.
The TPP, an Asia-Pacific regional
trade group led by the United States, has been touted as “the most credible
pathway to broader Asia-Pacific
regional economic integration.”
It seeks to bring down tariff
rates to zero by 2015, when the Asean common market will have been put in
place.
In her last Philippine visit in
November last year, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed hope that
the Philippines, through the US-Philippines Partnership for Growth, will be in
a “better position” to join the TPP.
Mia M. Gonzalez
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