The Philippines supports moves by Asean to cut down the number of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) and non-tariff measures (NTMs) within the region as the region integrates further.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said NTBs and NTMs should not be used for industry protection.
In his speech at the Malaysia Promotion Program at the Makati Shangri-la yesterday, Lopez said a working group is now taking stock of the NTBs and NTMs Asean member-countries have put in place.
“ It is really essential that as we bring down down a lot of tariff rates on 96 percent of our products, the NTBs, NTMs will have to be removed as well.
We in Asean have been putting that on top of the priority list in terms of considering certain criteria which can allow justifiable NTBs… or NTMs that can be retained,” Lopez said.
While the criteria and the eventual reduction targets are yet to be set, Lopez said in principle, NTBs that are used for safety, security concerns and standard compliance are justifiable.
“These are not barriers per se. We want to ensure there is product testing done for sanitary and phythosanitary. Those are legitimate (measures). But to be beyond that, say for industry protection why we do that? You are trying to reduce tariffs… so you don’t replace tariff with NTBs with the purpose of industry protection,” Lopez added.
He said Asean hopes to release the inventory of NTBs and NTMs before the end of the year.
Source: Malaya
Key words: Asean, seeks, cuts on, NTBs
