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Philippines eyes benefits for local electronics industry in US-led trade IPEF trade deal

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Warren de Guzman, ABS-CBN News

MANILA - The Philippines is looking to safeguard its electronics industry with its participation in the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity or IPEF, an official of the Department of rade and Industry said on Thursday. DTI Assistant Secretary Allan Gepty said they hope that taking part in the IPEF will ensure the Philippine semiconductor industry will not suffer from the aggressive reshoring program of the US. The reshoring program comes amid an extended trade war between the US and China, which incidentally houses many chip manufacturers who do business in America. Gepty said the Philippines can benefit from this shift in the global supply chain as companies look for countries that offer a more “conducive business environment for investors.” “And if you are looking at US investors, then definitely we expect that the Philippines will be one of the countries that they will consider in the process,” Gepty said. The IPEF, which was launched by the US in May this year, covers four areas: trade; supply chain; clean energy, decarbonization and infrastructure; and tax and anti-corruption.Gepty said that apart from trade, they also want to focus on supply chains and for the country to attract investments from IPEF partners in this area.“We see that the Philippines has a comparative advantage because we have a strong electronic sector and we also want to position the country as one of the centers for research and development and also an innovation hub for the region,“ Gepty said.The IPEF has 14 signatories including the US, the Philippines, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Unlike other free trade agreements, it does not offer benefits such as direct market access or preferential treatment.In September IPEF also unveiled an upskilling program that will benefit 7 million women and girls across IPEF partner countries. Gepty said the program is still very new, and the Philippines has not yet been informed of how Filipinos can take part in it, but they are watching it very closely. Fourteen US companies are reportedly set to take part in the training program including, Amazon and Amazon Web Services, American Tower, Apple, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Edelman Global Advisory (EGA), Google, HP, IBM, MasterCard, Microsoft, PayPal, Salesforce, and Visa.Heather Variava, Deputy Head of Mission US Embassy in the Philippines says “Apart from promoting trade we also expect workers from all IPEF countries to benefit. What we are trying to do with IPEF is to prevent a race to the bottom on wages and labor standards. Something that is a consequence of previous trade agreements. The US as well as other partners will ensure our agreements support high labor standards to work toward a more level playing field for workers in member countries.” The Philippines is also taking part in the China-led free trade deal RCEP or Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, but has yet to ratify the agreement. <ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/08/02/22/rcep-trade-deal-fails-in-some-areas">RCEP trade deal fails in areas where smaller bilateral pacts in Asia-Pacific shine</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/09/10/22/us-forges-indo-pacific-trade-framework">After pulling out of Trans-Pacific Partnership, US forges Asia trade framework</a></li></ul><div>RELATED VIDEO</div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1839927" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

The DTI said it hopes that taking part in the IPEF will ensure the Philippine semiconductor industry will not suffer from the aggressive reshoring program of the US. 

Philippines eyes benefits for local electronics industry in US-led trade IPEF trade deal

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Philippines eyes benefits for local electronics industry in US-led trade IPEF trade deal

Warren de Guzman,

ABS-CBN News

Published Oct 20, 2022 03:23 PM PHT

Read More:

DTI

IPEF

free trade deal

reshoring

semiconductors

electronics

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