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DTI to push for SME development in ASEAN


Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are taking center-stage during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Economic Meeting (AEM) in Indonesia this week, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said Thursday. In a statement, DTI Secretary Gregory Domingo said that they will push for package policy measures for SMEs, adding that SME promotion will be the priority of the country’s international trade agreements with particular focus on easing processes for tariff treatment. He added that the DTI is “exploring all avenues to make it easier for SMEs to become successful exporters." Improving trade Domingo said that he wants ASEAN officials and technical work groups to consider reducing or revising the Rules of Origin (ROO) requirements for SME export transactions. The rules are the criteria to determine where a product was made. According to the World Trade Organization, ROO is an integral part of trade because certain policies discriminate between exporting countries, adding that the issue is complicated by “globalization and the way a product can be processed in several countries before it is ready for the market." Model for ASEAN In the Philippines, the DTI last year launched the Doing Business in Free Trade Areas (DBFTA) — a business education program to promote the use of the country’s preferential trade agreements. As of 2010, the program has reached 11 cities, benefiting almost 2,000 businesses. ASEAN countries like Cambodia have been studying the Philippine’s DBFTA to boost the use of trade agreements in their own countries. “ASEAN is deliberately working together to foster SME development in the region. The DBFTA program is one way we hope to assist Philippine SMEs into expanding their business overseas by informing them the benefits of our trade agreements," said Undersecretary for International Trade Adrian Cristobal, adding that the DBFTA also helps entrepreneurs to better understand ROO systems and other issues that affect trade. Domingo and other ASEAN officials and technical working groups will also be talking about the possibility of developing a “self-certification" option for ASEAN’s exporters. “Self-certification" is as system used in the European Union and other developed economies in which exporters, after certification from authorities, certify them in terms of ROO compliance and other product shipments that fall under preferential tariff rates under a free trade agreement. — BC/VS, GMA News

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