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The Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Phils., Inc. (JCCIPI) calls for the immediate concurrence of the Senate to the ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
On 1 January 2022, the RCEP has already entered into force with ten countries, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Japan, Laos, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, and Australia. South Korea will follow on 1 February 2022, but Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines have yet to ratify the deal.
The JCCIPI firmly believes that the ratification of the RCEP would provide an immense boost to the country’s economic activity and further strengthen the intra-region free trade system, especially as a recovery mechanism from the impact brought by the pandemic which has made international cooperation on trade more important than ever. A guaranteed seat at the table in helping structure the rules for multilateral trade is more than a positive note for the country.
The RCEP, the world’s largest free-trade agreement, was originally proposed by the ASEAN countries in 2011 as a way of bringing its key FTA partners into one overarching agreement. The economic treaty covers nearly a third of the global population and will contribute US$ 26.2 trillion, about 30 percent of its global gross domestic product.
The JCCIPI is strongly convinced that the Philippines will be an investment destination for Japanese businesses and that of other countries. The JCCIPI welcomed the heightened interest of the Japanese business community. The approval of the Senate to the proposed amendments to the Retail Trade Liberalization Act (RTLA) last December and the highly anticipated approval of the amendments to the Foreign Investment Act and the Public Service Act are also strong factors that will help in the Philippine government’s efforts to reform its foreign investment regime, revitalizing the domestic and international trade activities, post-pandemic.
