PH still far from closing wide trade gap with China
Published Mar 29, 2019 12:00 am
By Madelaine B. Miraflor
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said that despite ongoing efforts, the trade imbalance between the Philippines and China remains so huge, still favoring the world's second largest economy.
Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez
At the China-Philippines Summit 2019, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the Philippines needs to boost its production of agriculture and non-agriculture products in order to correct the trade imbalance between the country and China.
A data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that People’s Republic of China was the country’s biggest supplier of imports with 22.2 percent share to total imports in January 2019.
Import bills to China particularly went up by 24.5 percent to US$2.01 billion from US$1.61 billion in January 2018.
This, while the Philippines only exported US$640.79 million worth of goods to China, which accounts for 12.1 percent of the country's total exports. This was only an increase of 2.3 percent from an export value of $626.34 million posted in January 2018.
"We need to supply the orders coming from China. We need more efforts in terms of agriculture and non-agriculture products. Right now, the initial set of orders are from agriculture products, both raw and processed," Lopez said in an interview.
"In fairness to China it has been issuing POs, they have been ordering, and to the extent, we can supply," he added.
The problem is that even the country's output on several farm products are not enough to cater to the local demand.
"We do import a lot of things from China so what we need to do is increase our production so that we can supply them what we need," Lopez said. "The thing is right now, we are even facing a shortage on some products".
Philippines has already been making effort to correct the trade imbalance between the two countries. During the last bilateral meeting between two countries that was held here in November, China promised to buy more from the Philippines to address the gap.
This, according to Lopez, resulted to several Chinese companies issuing purchase orders of about US$1 worth of goods from the Philippines.
That time, Philippine products that were opened to China include pineapple, mango, banana.
The Philippines is now seeking a bigger Chinese market for more locally produced products such as coconut, high value products, fashion accessories, computer data storage units, among others.
Lopez was one of the speakers at the China-Philippines Summit, which was attended by several Chinese investors who are visiting the Philippines for the first time.
During his speech, Lopez encouraged the Chinese investors to invest here in the Philippines, highlighting the country's consistent economic growth and good ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"We are very fortunate that we are at the period that we see a spring of relationship between China and the Philippines brought about by good relationship between President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping," Lopez said.
Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez
At the China-Philippines Summit 2019, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the Philippines needs to boost its production of agriculture and non-agriculture products in order to correct the trade imbalance between the country and China.
A data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that People’s Republic of China was the country’s biggest supplier of imports with 22.2 percent share to total imports in January 2019.
Import bills to China particularly went up by 24.5 percent to US$2.01 billion from US$1.61 billion in January 2018.
This, while the Philippines only exported US$640.79 million worth of goods to China, which accounts for 12.1 percent of the country's total exports. This was only an increase of 2.3 percent from an export value of $626.34 million posted in January 2018.
"We need to supply the orders coming from China. We need more efforts in terms of agriculture and non-agriculture products. Right now, the initial set of orders are from agriculture products, both raw and processed," Lopez said in an interview.
"In fairness to China it has been issuing POs, they have been ordering, and to the extent, we can supply," he added.
The problem is that even the country's output on several farm products are not enough to cater to the local demand.
"We do import a lot of things from China so what we need to do is increase our production so that we can supply them what we need," Lopez said. "The thing is right now, we are even facing a shortage on some products".
Philippines has already been making effort to correct the trade imbalance between the two countries. During the last bilateral meeting between two countries that was held here in November, China promised to buy more from the Philippines to address the gap.
This, according to Lopez, resulted to several Chinese companies issuing purchase orders of about US$1 worth of goods from the Philippines.
That time, Philippine products that were opened to China include pineapple, mango, banana.
The Philippines is now seeking a bigger Chinese market for more locally produced products such as coconut, high value products, fashion accessories, computer data storage units, among others.
Lopez was one of the speakers at the China-Philippines Summit, which was attended by several Chinese investors who are visiting the Philippines for the first time.
During his speech, Lopez encouraged the Chinese investors to invest here in the Philippines, highlighting the country's consistent economic growth and good ties with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
"We are very fortunate that we are at the period that we see a spring of relationship between China and the Philippines brought about by good relationship between President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping," Lopez said.