By Alithea De Jesus
Following the optimistic sentiment about the impact of the coronation of King Charles III on the trade and investment between the United Kingdom and the Philippines, and the recently concluded 4th round of UK-Phl bilateral Economic Dialogue last May 19, 2023, British Chamber remains bullish on further growth in UK-PH trade relations.
On May 29, British Chamber of Commerce’s Executive Director/Trustee Chris Nelson shared in an interview with a news outlet that the total trade between the UK and the Philippines’ bilateral trade in goods and services was 2.4 billion pounds in 2022, an increase of 26%.
Nelson shared that he participated in the Philippine British Business Council (PBBC) Meeting with Ambassador Teodoro Locsin Jr. and Ambassador Laure Beaufils last week. They mentioned about the 100% ownership and investment in renewable energy, which will attract more opportunities to the British business sector.
The main discussion was the upcoming launch of the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) on June 7, which will further help the already growing trade between the UK and the Philippines. This will be led by Ambassador Beaufils and DTI Secretary Alfredo Pacual. This will replace the Generalized Scheme of Preferences or GSP and will further boost UK-PH trade relations.
Further, the British Chamberwill host its 10th World Gin Day event on the 22nd of June 2023 at Dusit Thani, Makati, which is in partnership with Ginebra San Miguel. It will include a bartending competition as one of the exciting activities.
“As you know, the UK has numerous and well-established gin companies. We have members ourselves [that will participate] such as Nelson’s Distillery,” said Chris. To date, there are differently-flavoured 10 sample gin bottles that will be showcased at the event. Through this, more UK SME and MSME companies will be extensively promoted to help enter the Philippine market.
The Philippines serves as the 64th largest trading partner of the UK with the UK’s exports at £1.2 billion and UK imports at £1.2 billion. Indeed, the British Chamber has a positive outlook for UK-PH growing trade relations.
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