The US President’s Export Council, an advisory group to President Biden on how to facilitate exports, said they will support the call of the Philippines for the forging of a bilateral free trade deal with the US.

Mark D. Ein, chairman of the President’s Export Council, said the US-Philippines free trade agreement (FTA) idea came up in their discussions in various meetings during the visit of US Commerce Secretary Gina  Raimondo here. 

The US Export Council was represented in the official delegation of the high-level Presidential Trade Mission to the Philippines led by Raimondo from March 11-12.    

“It is not so late to do that,” said Ein referring to the proposed bilateral FTA during a press conference on the second day of the trade mission in the country.

According to Ein, the bilateral trade deal is one of the ideas raised at the meetings, but he also said that the crafting of an FTA needs Congressional action. The proposed bilateral FTA was already given the go signal by the former Trump administration, but was not favored by the current Biden administration.  

In a separate interview, Ein told Manila Bulletin Business that the Council also supports suggestions from the Philippines, particularly the domestic garment manufacturers, to expand the list of products in the US Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP) that would be beneficial to the Philippines.

The US-GSP provides zero and preferential tariff on certain products exported to the US by their trading partners. The local garments sector, however, would rather have the FTA deal because the GSP is temporary in nature and the sector no longer has eligible products.     

“After this trip, we will spend two months consolidating our recommendations,” he said noting there are 22 US firms in the mission.  

“We will bring those ideas back to the administration. So, it is something under consideration,” said Ein, who added this is the first time for the export council to be invited in a presidential trade mission to the Philippines.  

Aside from the trade aspect, Ein said that one important recommendation the Council will push for is the digitization of all processes and paper works to facilitate trade. He said that digitization of trade processes is a common recommendation by the council for all its trading partners. 

As a businessman, Ein is engaged in the tourism sector being a tour operator called Limited Expeditions, and another company called Kastle Systems, which provides security systems for big buildings.