Dec

4

Cebu, Philippines is beefing up on trade deals with its Asian neigbours right all across the other side to Europe.

Cebu is forming links and networks in Hawaii, the European Union and established modern, stronger economic bonds with its oldest trade partner, China.

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Aloha, Cebu and Hawaii

A delegation of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) are on eight-day trade mission in Hawaii. The mission started on November 30 and will end December 7.

The newly created CCCI-Hawaii Business Council will help promote Cebuano businesses and sectors to Hawaii, such as tourism, health, food, real estate and construction, furniture retirement facilities, among others.

The delegation aims to conduct business forums and business matching with the members of the Filipino Chamber of Commerce in Hawaii. At these forums, investment and trade opportunities in Cebu will be presented to the Hawaiian investing community, as well as provide networking opportunities with the private and public sectors.

Cebu and the European Union (EU)

Exporters in Cebu, the Federation of Exporters of the Philippines (PhilExport-Cebu), called the Philippine government to assertively pursue more trade bilateral agreements with other countries to lessen the impact of the volatile foreign exchange.

Although, there are already existing bilateral agreements with economic powers such as the Japan’s Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) and China’s Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT), which local exporters have yet to seriously take advantage of, it would be very beneficial for exporters to have more choices.

In line with this initiative, the Philippine government, through its Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has expressed interest to form a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU.)

Cebu, Philippines and China

The Philippines expects stronger trade relations with China resulting from trade diversification and business-to-business linkages. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reports that that the Philippines and China trade increased by 52.2 percent in the first half of the year.

Trade figures from the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) have shown that bilateral trade between the Philippine and China has increased from US$8.6 billion in 2009 to US$13.1 billion this year.

Other than this, 2010 was also notable for a series of trade delegations from China visited the Philippines, including Cebu to expand business linkages with Filipino businesses.

Earlier this September, a delegation led by the Wuhan Municipal Government from Central China, was in Cebu for a three-day trade mission. Wuhan City would like to forge a closer trade-exchange relationship between Cebu and also Manila, via a sister-city relationship under the framework of existing Philippines-China relations.

Cebu export players are now starting to strongly penetrate China, considered as a good emerging market.

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References:

  1. Dagooc, Ehda. “PHL ambassador to China sees stronger trade.”  01 December 2010. Cebu’s  the Freeman. Accessed 02 December 2010. Link Here.
  2. Dagooc, Ehda. “PHL aims for free trade deal with EU.”  30 November 2010. Cebu’s  the Freeman. Accessed 02 December 2010. Link Here.
  3. Dagooc, Ehda. “Cebu team to Hawaii for trade mission.” 29 November 2010. Cebu’s  the Freeman. Accessed 02 December 2010. Link Here.

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