The Philippines will continue to push for internal reforms to make sure the country adjusts to the state of the global economy, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said on Thursday.
Balisacan made the statement when asked about whether the Philippine government should revisit policies to diversify the country’s export market, following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory.
“I think that we will have to continue with our internal efforts, our internal reforms, to ensure that whatever the state of the global economy, our local economy will be able to adjust and take advantage of opportunities to protect the economy from any adverse shocks if there will be one,” he said during the briefing on the third-quarter performance of the Philippine economy.
Balisacan noted that while the impact of a Trump presidency on the Philippines is still too early to determine, there may be some “positive pull-outs.”
“I think that there may be also positive pull-outs for us, developments for us, particularly that we are building relationships with the US and many other countries,” he said, adding that the Philippines “can work with any government.”
According to Balisacan, the negative effect, meanwhile, is if Trump decides to impose higher tariffs.
He said this could have an impact on the global economy.
Balisacan said the Philippines is pushing for more free trade agreements (FTAs) with other countries to reduce the country’s vulnerability to external shocks, especially from its major trading partners.
“We have been pushing, we have been more aggressive in opening up other channels, like our free trade agreements with other countries. As I said, we have just concluded the one in Korea, and we are on the final stages with the UAE (United Arab Emirates), and we have this EU (European Union) FTA going on,” he said.
“And we want to see many more of these FTAs, bilateral and multilateral agreements so that we can open up many more opportunities for our – and in the process, diversifying our exports, but also the success of our imports.” (PNA)
