Philippines in the global trading environment: looking back and the challenges ahead
2003
Austria, M.S.(De La Salle Univ., Manila (Philippines). Center for Business and Economics Research and Development)
The government has implemented substantial trade and investment policy reforms during the last two decades, following a three-track approach involving unilateral, regional, and multilateral modalities toward freer trade and investment. The reforms have resulted in improvements in domestic resource allocation, increased productivity, increased competitiveness of manufacturing industries, expansion of exports, and increased integration of the country in the global market. Yet, the growth of the industry sector, particularly marketing, has not been as robust as many have expected, leading some sectors to question the reforms. This requires some hard thinking even as it poses a challenge to policymakers. The experience of the country during the past two decades shows that getting the most out of international trade is not just a matter of shifting away from exports of primary commodities to exports of manufacturers. This paper argues that the effect of international trade on the country's economic growth depends largely on how much of that trade is linked to the domestic economic activity. In effect, the fundamental policy issue for the government is not one of more or less trade liberalization, but how best to extract from the country's participation in the global trading system the elements that will promote economic development, especially now that the global trading environment is becoming much more complex that what it was two decades ago. This paper addresses this issue, including the opportunities as well as the challenges that lie ahead for the country, under the emerging more complex global trading environment.
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