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By Llanesca T. Panti, Reporter
A free-trade agreement among New Zealand, Australia and Asean is set
to be signed at the sidelines of a regional summit in Thailand next
month, an envoy said Tuesday.
In an exclusive roundtable with The Manila
Times, New Zealand Ambassador Andrew Matheson said the agreement
would eliminate tariffs on all export goods of the nations involved.
Asean, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a regional
bloc that groups the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
“It would be one of the highly liberal trades
ever established,” Matheson said, adding that he is not allowed to
give details, which will be announced in Thailand. “We have been
negotiating about it for a long time, and we hope to have it signed
during the Chiang Mai [a resort city in northern Thailand]
meeting.”
He said the pact would be highly beneficial to
the Philippines, given that its exports to New Zealand is growing at
a faster pace than imports from that country. Imports from New
Zealand—mostly dairy and timber products—grew 30 percent
year-on-year in 2007.
Total bilateral trade is 800 million New Zealand
dollars or P24 billion yearly, which is in favor of New Zealand. But
Philippine exports are rapidly increasing, led by refined petroleum
products, bananas, electronic integrated circuits, electrical
accumulators and computers, according to data from the New Zealand
Trade Statistics.
“The Philippines is a very important trading
partner for New Zealand, and this pact will even make them more
competitive in our market and in Australia, especially those export
products coming from China,” Matheson said.
New Zealand’s first free-trade agreement was
signed in 1983 with Australia, with whom Wellington—the
capital—is trying to forge a single-economic market. Similar
agreements were signed later with Singapore, Thailand and China.
“We see ourselves as part of Asia,” the
envoy told The Times, adding that his country’s foreign policy
remains the same even with the election of a new government
recently.
Besides being a dialogue partner of Asean, New
Zealand is also a member of the Asean Regional Forum and a
participant in the East Asia Summit.
Plus, its new premier, foreign minister and
other officials will be attending the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) forum in Peru this week.
Open immigration policy
New Zealand is open to Filipino immigrants,
especially skilled workers in engineering, agriculture, nursing and
information technology, the envoy said.
About 17,000 immigrants in New Zealand are from
the Philippines, he said, adding that the number is growing at about
10 percent a year. About 20 percent of New Zealand’s total
population of 4.2 million are immigrants, and about 75 percent of
them are skilled workers, he said.
Some 18,000 Filipinos travel to New Zealand for
short periods to work, study or visit, and that number is growing 30
percent annually, Matheson said. Most of the Filipino tourists are
visiting relatives in New Zealand, and the embassy in Manila is
forecasting to issue about 16,000 visas for short-term visitors from
the Philippines in 2009, he added.
The Wellington government has a liberal
immigration policy in place, he said.
The Philippines and New Zealand have been
partners for 40 years, and Matheson, who only arrived in the
Philippines recently, said his instructions were to build closer
ties with Manila on a bilateral and regional context.
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