THE Philippine free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea will not be signed at this week’s ASEAN-Korea commemorative summit as initially targeted after negotiations reached a stalemate.

Instead, trade ministers of both countries will release a joint statement at the summit held in Busan City on Nov. 25 to 26.

Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez told reporters after a press conference on Friday that the statement will include the progress of negotiations.

“There will be an ‘early achievement package’… so far on what has been agreed and we basically commit to finalize and work towards the improvement of this package for next year’s completion,” Mr. Lopez explained.

The statement will include information on products that could be included in the FTA and the timetable for tariff reduction.

Mr. Lopez said that the statement will report certain “achievements” in negotiations, but not final agreements.

He said that the Trade department is still negotiating the shortening the number of years before liberalization.

“At least there are early negotiations on where we are,” he said in Filipino.

The negotiations, which started in June, reached a stalemate after the countries failed to agree on details of the reduction of tariffs on Philippine banana exports to Korea, and Korean auto parts exports to the Philippines.

DON’T ‘WORRY TOO MUCH’
University of Asia and the Pacific economist George N. Manzano, a former tariff commissioner, said in a mobile phone message that the FTA not pushing through this year will not be critical to overall bilateral trade.

“I wouldn’t worry too much for the timeframe… We have ASEAN-Korea [FTA] anyway and what’s at stake is incremental trade. Just means we won’t be shipping more bananas to Korea nor is Korea selling more vehicles,” he said.

According to preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, Philippine exports to South Korea reached $2.36 million year-to-date in September, growing 26.6% from the same nine months in 2018. The country is the Philippines’ sixth-largest export destination in that period.

Imports from South Korea dropped 24.7% to $6.31 million year-to-date in September. It is the Philippines third-largest source of imports after China and Japan.

South Korea is the second-biggest source of committed foreign direct investment reported by the Board of Investments in September with P34.1 billion.

The two countries are also expected to sign cooperation deals on tourism, education, fisheries, and social security during President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s visit for the summit. — Jenina P. Ibañez

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