#MINDANAO
Now that the US presidential elections are over and a second Trump administration is set to take office, I am sure many of you are listening to a wide range of commentators.
Apart from the usual discussions that center on what made the Republican party win and why their adversary lost, a very important post-election discussion centers on the US economy and how this will relate to the rest of the world.
The fact remains that the United States is still among the world’s largest economies. How much it consumes, produces, and buys to produce things makes it a powerful and influential economy. Moreover, its popular culture sets trends for the way products are consumed in many other markets.
The deep question is how will the US economic policy be made or remade in light of the Trump victory. Will higher tariffs be imposed on products entering the United States? What will it mean for us in the Philippines, particularly producers and exporters from Mindanao? How these questions will be answered in the coming months are discussions that we must eagerly watch.
In the Nov. 7 MB article of Derco Rosal, NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan mentioned the need for diversified trade relations as a response to the possible hike in tariffs for products exported to the United States from many countries.
Market diversification will encourage heavier bilateral trade with individual countries, or multilateral trade arrangements with groups of countries, many of which also have heavy trade with each other. Such arrangements have the potential to boost trade and opportunity between participants. This needs to be pursued.
Apart from market diversification, a diversified set of channels will also be needed. This will mean enabling trade through ports apart from Manila, such as utilizing Mindanao’s ports which are nearer to markets such as ASEAN. With this, we will need to build up port facilities to allow higher volumes of trade and export products to pass through.
E-commerce channels with more countries will also be crucial to facilitate trade.
Another measure to further diversify trade is bolstering trade within the Brunei Indonesia Malaysia Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP EAGA). A good plan to diversify each economy with manufacturing and agro-processing industries will create the opportunity for jobs and income growth in the subregion, a development that will be good for each national economy. I believe BIMP-EAGA’s time is now.
To participate fully in BIMP-EAGA, encouraging more investments, particularly in manufacturing in Mindanao will be vital since the island is the most proximate to this area. This will also require innovations and technology. This can lower the cost of products and make them more competitive in the export market. Mindanao’s ability to make and export to BIMP EAGA and the rest of the world will boost its economic growth.
Business groups in Mindanao and the Visayas must work to build bridges with counterparts in various countries. The work of local and foreign chambers of commerce will be crucial to government efforts at creating more diverse trade relationships.
These and other measures will be necessary, not merely to respond to US economic policy, but to build new and stronger economic relationships with a wider variety of countries that are also boosting inclusive growth within their territories and diversifying their trade relationships with others. Our common economic future will demand strong and competitive local economies and diversified global trade.