Philippines, Israel not yet ready for FTA

MANILA, Philippines — While a free trade agreement (FTA) between the Philippines and Israel is unlikely to happen at the moment, there is an opportunity for the two nations to discuss on how they can create more tools to do business together with an upcoming joint economic committee (JEC) meeting this year.

“A free trade deal is always interesting, but you have to have a certain level of trade between these countries, and a variety of areas to make it interesting for both countries. I think we’re not there yet,” Israeli ambassador Illan Fluss said.

Fluss, however, said the two countries are set to conduct a joint economic committee meeting later this year, which will serve as a great opportunity for the two governments to discuss how they can create more tools to do more business together.

He said this would be an opportunity for the two countries to see what kind of tools, agreements and different collaborations they need.

Fluss said the meeting may likely happen in the second quarter. “No final date yet because in Israel, we just had a new government in place just a couple of weeks ago. So now we have to start communicating and finalizing because we have to wait to have a new minister in place,” he said.

Fluss said both Israel and Philippine companies have expressed their interest to do business in each other’s country.

He said that Israeli delegations of agriculture technology companies, water, among others visited the Philippines last year.

“And from the Philippines, we hope to see this year delegations going to Israel in the coming few months. We have a few going there,” Fluss said.

He also hailed the recent collaboration between Philippine conglomerate Metro Pacific Group and Israel’s LR group in two areas of agriculture, particularly dairy and horticulture.

“Israeli companies are here, they’re seeing a lot of interest. We’re trying to get more Philippine companies to come to Israel, to identify opportunities in Israel, because the two economies complement each other. The Philippines is a vast country, island country, a lot of challenges and a lot of needs. Israel is a small country, but has a lot of technologies and best practices that it can share with the Philippines. So I think that together, it just makes sense to work together,” Fluss said.

In June last year, the Philippines and Israel signed an investment promotion and protection agreement to further boost bilateral economic relations between the two countries.

“The IPPA with Israel provides a key opportunity to tap into the industries of agro-tech, life sciences and healthcare, water technologies, high-technology and semiconductors, cybersecurity, financial technology, defense industry, smart transportation, clean technology, smart manufacturing, and the diamond industry,” the Department of Trade and Industry said earlier.