acces to markets

• Enhanced support for Trade fairs is the provision of a more organized menu of market services like trade fairs which are affordable to SMEs
• The DTI, in partnership with the Bureau of Customs (BoC), the Tariff Commission and the private sector, has organized a series of information sessions on Doing Business in Free Trade Areas (DBFTA) nationwide to encourage and assist entrepreneurs to use Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and benefit from them.
• Go Lokal! is retail concept store which showcases innovative, high quality Philippine products crafted, designed and produced by the country’s MSMEs.
• When there is free trade, and tariffs and quotas are eliminated, monopolies are also eliminated because more players can come in and join the market.
• Export Pathways Program (EPP) focuses on providing export assistance through a systematic approach, providing interventions at every stage of an exporter’s growth.
• oneSTore.ph is an e-commerce web application that operates nationwide and caters primarily to Philippine consumers.
• Since member countries are no longer subject to import taxes, they need to think of ways to compensate for the reduced tax revenue.
• Tindahang Pinoy is a depot that will showcase world-class, export-quality Philippine products.
• The PH-EFTA FTA is part of the country’s strategy to gain stronger foothold in the European market.
• Philippine service suppliers who want to enter the EFTA market can benefit from the commitments made by EFTA in all modes of supply.
• The formal negotiations between the Philippines and Japan started in February 2004.
• The objective of the RCEP Agreement is to establish a modern, comprehensive, high-quality, and mutually beneficial economic partnership that will facilitate the expansion of regional trade and investment and contribute to global economic growth and development.
• The Philippines and Japan signed the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) in 2006, the first bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) for the Philippines after 50 years.
• While PH-EFTA economic relations is relatively small, there is large potential to expand trade and investment relations with EFT.
• The Philippines-EFTA covers trade in goods, trade in services, investment, competition, intellectual property, government procurement, and trade and sustainable development.
• The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement is an agreement to broaden and deepen ASEAN’s engagement with Australia, China, Japan, Korea and New Zealand.
• President Arroyo and then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi agreed on major elements of JPEPA in November 2004 that would lead to the immediate removal of tariffs on certain fruits, vehicles, steel products, electronic appliances, and garments.
• The Philippines and EFTA members – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland – signed a free trade agreement in 2016 which entered into force in 2018.
• The FTA provides the Philippines duty-free market access for all industrial and fisheries tariff lines upon entry into force of the FTA.
• JPEPA was initiated during President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s visit to Japan in December 2002.
• The JPEPA was signed in Helsinki, Finland on 9 September 2006.
• ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) is a 2010 ASEAN agreement that consolidated all Common Effective Preferential Tariff/ASEAN Free Trade Area (CEPT/AFTA) commitments related to trade in goods.
• The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is composed of 10 Member States.
• ATIGA was signed in Hua Hin, Thailand on 26 February 2009 during the 14th ASEAN Summit Meeting and came into force on 17 May 2010.
• Brand Equity Development Program (BrEDP) is a program designed to enhance the brand equity of the Philippines through the development of innovative and globally competitive brands.
• ATIGA aims to establish a single market and production base with a free flow of goods in the ASEAN region.
• JPEPA is a comprehensive bilateral trade and investment agreement between Japan and the Philippines aimed at increasing trade and investment opportunities between the two economies.
• ATIGA covers tariff liberalization, trade facilitation initiatives, simplification of rules of origin, and establishment of an ASEAN Trade Repository.
• Information Drive on Foreign Trade Agreements is a new initiative of the government to develop innovative and globally competitive brands that can successfully penetrate into the national, regional/ASEAN, or international markets.