Electrical machinery and equipment

• Main Author: Asuncion, Ruben Carlo O.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2006
• Subjects: Electric machinery industry; Free trade; World Trade Organization; Doha Development Agenda; International trade; Economics
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/11948
• Institution: De La Salle University

It has been seen that EM&E industry contributes much to the nation's export industry. But with the culmination of the trade negotiations in the Doha Development Agenda and the electronics/electrical sectoral initiative proposed by various countries (such as Hong Kong, United States, Japan, Singapore, Korea and Thailand) in the WTO of total elimination of tariffs, the industry faces a different place of competition and bid to capture important niches in the vast electronics market in the world. The SWOT-analysis made by Semiconductors and Electronics Industries in the Philippines, Inc. (SEIPI), a major industry stakeholder, is a good starting point for a responsive and efficient guide to compete in a fully liberalized electronics/electrical industry.The Philippines should take advantage of the "flexibilities" offered to developing countries such as longer implementation periods for specific tariff lines should a total elimination of tariffs be multilaterally agreed upon in the DDA. The discussions on simulated tariff reductions in both bound and unbound tariff line of the EM&E industry seem to be less important (though very important for specific computations for flexibilities offered to developing countries that will be decided in the NAMA negotiations) due to the fact that much of the tariff lines, both bound and unbound, are very low (a large bulk of bound tariff lines have 0% tariff rate and a number of unbound tariff lines have very low tariff levels) and a move to complete tariff elimination in the industry could be visibly possible. Nevertheless, the support for complete tariff elimination should be approached with much caution to prevent any possible vulnerability that the EM&E industry might have that would lessen or mitigate past and current contributions to the Philippine economy.