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Businessmen in Cebu will be briefed at the end of the month on the country's new free trade agreement with Australia and New Zealand.
Grace Ceniza, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) executive director, said that the chamber would host the Cebu leg of the awareness campaign of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) on April 30 at the Cebu Parklane Hotel.
?Our organization is targeting to gather more crowd on April 30 when we'll be holding the Cebu leg dubbed as 'Understanding the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement' to also make the local traders aware of our new free trade agreement with Australia and New Zealand which took effect on January 1 this year,? said Ceniza.
Ceniza was referring to the Manila leg of the seminar which was attended by 200 participants.
Representatives from the Australian and New Zealand embassies, the Bureau of Customs (BOC), and the Department of Trade and Industry will also attend the seminar.
The seminar will inform local traders the benefits they can enjoy under the agreement, market opportunities in Australia and New Zealand. It will also tackle how local traders can take advantage of the agreement's benefits.
The features in the agreement include trade incentives like preferential tariff rates to be enjoyed by the Filipino traders
?Because of the agreement, this year, 96.4 percent of all tariff lines of Australia will be at zero percent rates which a number of major Philippine exports to Australia like automotive parts, including ignition wiring harness, batteries, wheels and tires, yachts and vessels for transport, and agricultural products such as canned pineapples and tuna, have started to enjoy,? Ceniza said.
Still under the agreement, 84.7percent of New Zealand?s tariff universe will have zero rates in 2010 and by 2020, practically all sectors will benefit when Australia and New Zealand eliminate tariffs on all products including those that could potentially enter these markets.
?Philippine merchandise exports to Australia amounted to US$295 million in 2009, while exports to New Zealand were placed at US$28 million,? Ceniza said.
The seminar will happen on April 30, 2010 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Cebu Parklane Hotel, ?registration is free but on a first-come-first-serve basis,? Ceniza informed./Reporter Aileen Garcia-Yap
