Lopez warns $6B at risk if PH cuts ties with China

Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez told lawmakers Friday that cutting ties with China due to tension over the West Philippine Sea could cost the country some $6 billion in exports.

During the appropriations committee hearing over the Department of Trade and Industry’s proposed P4.766-billion budget in 2017, Lopez was asked by Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano whether or not the maritime dispute with China could make a dent on the country’s exports to China.

“We understand the tension going on because of the issues in the West Philippine Sea,” Alejano said.

Lopez said the value of the country’s exports to China is at least $6.39 billion while the value of imports from China is at $10.8 billion in 2015. The trade volume is at $17 billion.

Lopez said the country’s major exports include electronics, ore, concentrates, while imports include semiconductor devices, parts of electrical apparatus, and accessories.

Lopez said the country can’t afford to cut ties with China with the value of exports at risk.

“As reported earlier, the export at $6 to $8 billion, the implication is employment impact on exports supplying the Chinese market. It’s a huge size of exports that we can’t immediately replace if we lose our opportunity to export to China,” Lopez said.

The Philippines won its maritime case against China over the resource-rich West Philippine Sea after the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal in the Hague, The Netherlands, ruled that China’s historic nine-dash line claiming almost all the South China Seas has no historic and legal basis and that the West Philippine Sea falls within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

READ: Philippines wins arbitration case vs. China over South China Sea 

President Rodrigo Duterte has expressed willingness to open bilateral talks with China, which has continued to maintain its artificial islands preventing Filipino fishermen from the disputed waters even though it lost the maritime case. RAM/rga