MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines may have to further reduce tariffs on certain imports from Korea for failure to implement the scheduled tariff cuts in the Sensitive List under the ASEAN-Korea Free Trade Agreement (AKFTA).

Implementation of the tariff cuts on its Sensitive List of the Philippines had been delayed for six months already since the AKFTA took effect middle of last year yet.

In fact, the Tariff Commission is ye to hold public hearing on April 13 next week to implement the tariff reduction schedule for products in the Sensitive List under the AKFTA.

An official said the delays in the implementation were largely due to failed domestic procedures such as delays in the consultation process with the affected industries.

To offset for the losses incurred by Korean exporters, the Philippines have to lower more its rates on some products.

There Philippines listed a total of 791 tariff lines under its Sensitive List. These are mostly agricultural products with tariff rates ranging from a maximum of 40 percent and a low of 1 percent to include women’s dresses.

There are also products under the list with zero duty already like motor vehicle components that have been identified under the Motor Vehicle Development Program.

These are components, parts and/or accessories imported from one or more countries for assembly of vehicles by participants in the Motor Vehicle Development Program with certificate from BoI for the assembly of hybrid (electric and gasoline/diesel), electric, flex-fuel (bio-ethanol and bio-diesel) and Compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles.

ASEAN and Korea began negotiations for the. AKFTA in February 2005, and in May 2006 the two sides signed a free trade agreement leading to a free trade area.

Total trade volume between Asean and the ROK had substantially doubled in the past years from $46.4 billion in 2004 to $90.2 billion in 2008.

There has been a steady increase in mutual investment between ASEAN and the ROK amounting to $6.8 billion in 2008, which is more than five times the amount of $1.3 billion in 2004. The number of visitors between the two regions expanded by more than twofold in the past five years, averaging four million people per year.