ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA)
(ATIGA) aims to achieve free flow of goods in the region resulting to less trade barriers and deeper economic linkages among Member States, lower business costs, increased trade, and a larger market and economies of scale for businesses. Through ATIGA, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand have eliminated intra-ASEAN import duties on 99.65 percent of their tariff lines. Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Viet Nam have reduced their import duties to 0-5 percent on 98.86 percent of their tariff lines. Today, focus is given to addressing non-tariff measures that could have non-tariff barrier effects on the region's trade and business activities.
European Union’s (EU) General System of Preferences Plus (GSP+)
On December 18, 2014, the European Parliament officially granted the Philippines’ request for inclusion in the. The Philippines will soon be able to export, tariff-free, over 6,200 products (66 percent of all product tariff lines) to the EU, including processed fruit, coconut oil, footwear, fish, and textiles.
In a statement about the inclusion of the Philippines in GSP+, EU Ambassador Guy Ledoux stated: “This is very good news for the Philippines as it will bring tariffs to zero percent for two thirds of tariff lines including strategic products that the Philippines is already exporting to the EU. This will immediately translate into savings of tens of millions of euros per year in foregone customs duties.”
The EU is the Philippines’ fourth largest trading partner and fourth largest export market – accounting for 11.56 percent of total Philippine exports. In 2013, the Philippines and the 28 Member States of the EU reached US$12.8 billion in bilateral trade.
GSP+, which the Philippines applied to join on February 28 of last year, is the next round of the EU’s Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP) – a trade preference scheme for developing countries and which covers a total of 6,274 tariff lines. Under the original GSP, the Philippines was able to export 2,442 products to the EU duty-free and reduced tariffs were applied to a further 3,767 products. GSP ended its cycle in December 2014.