Free Trade 48, WTO DG Azevedo in Manila

Yesterday, I attended a Roundtable Discussion with the Director General  of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Roberto Azevedo. Main organizer was the Department  of Foreign Affairs (DFA), but the  one that did Secretariat work was the T/A Trade Advisory and Trade Lawyers Group. Venue was the ADB so key ADB officials like  ADB President Nakao and VPs were there.

Below I will repost tweets and RTs made by Trade Lawyers @TradeLawyersPH. I am also posting some photos during the cocktails after the forum. Thanks to Gene Gregorio, Trade Lawyers for the photos. Not one of  them  from my camera phone.
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Opening Remarks by Amb. Conejos: DG is a charmer.

@WTODGAZEVEDO speaks on future prospects of trade and how @wto supports growth and development

Standing still on trade agreements can actually mean losing ground.

The Philippines now ranks with India on technology services.

The Philippines has been a champion of trade.

The panel: World Customs Organization (WCO) Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya, ADB Pres Takehiko Nakao, Chamber of Commerce of the PH President Jose Yulo, and Fed.  of Free Farmers (FFF) Pres. Raul Montemayor.

WCO Kunio Mikuriya: WTO is serious negotiation; WCO is pragmatic implementation.

on ASEAN Integration: We support connectivity. Customs is about connectivity.

Raul Montemayor: Trade is not the sole answer to food security. The strategic approach is to help farmers become more productive.

Jose Yulo: WTO should come to the aid of the losers of free trade.

on free trade: With free information exchange, "every one will get the piece of the pie

Open Forum

Dr. Roehlano Briones comments on disciplined food security.

Prof. Frederico Macaranas asks, what's the best case scenario for environmental sustainability in trade & services?

(1) @WTODGAZEVEDO on food security & environmental sustainability: No one bullet that will shoot all issues.

(2) The aim is to make gradual, progressive nd marginal steps to the right direction.

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Mr. Azevedo's speech yesterday is posted by the WTO here.

Some cocktails photos.
Below, from  right: Dr. George Manzano of the Univ.  of Asia and the Pacific (UAP), Gene Gregorio, Dr. Roehlano Briones of the PH Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), me.

Another photo with Gene. To my right are Tony Abad of Trade Lawyers and his buddy, sorry, forgot his name.

Another photo with Kristine Alcantara, one of three founding partners of AAA Law office (Abad, Alcantara, Aquino). Not in the photos is Gretchen Aquino.

Thanks again Tony, Kristine, Gretchen, for the invite. My longer article will be published in BusinessWorld, next week. Cheers.
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See also:

Free Trade 44: The Gravity Model, March 06, 2015 

Free Trade 45: Protectionism in Services, Peering at the ASEAN, March 12, 2015 

Free Trade 46: Debate on TPPA and Liberalization in Malaysia, March 31, 2015 

Free Trade 47: TPP, RCEP and IPR, May 11, 2015

AEC 7: AAA Law's Forum on Post-2015 ASEAN Integration

Last night, April 08, I attended a presentation by Luis T. Cruz, DFA Assistant Secretary for ASEAN Affairs, held at Shangrila Hotel Makati. He was one of two speakers. The next speaker after him was Laura Q. Del Rosario, DFA UnderSecretary for International Economic Relations, who spoke about the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and PH commitments and engagements.

The event was a networking forum on Post-2015 Integration of the ASEAN, also the formal launch of AAA trade law office. I was invited by Atty. Tony Abad, one of the partners. His two partners in the new law office are Atty. Kristine Alcantara and Gretchen Aquino.

Below, ASec Luis Cruz speaking. Among the things he highlighted was that the  PH is well positioned to  seize opportunities in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) because (a) we have the fastest GDP growth in the region, (b) we are the  2nd largest in population, next to Indonesia, (c) we have the youngest workforce, average age  of only 23.3 years, second only to  Laos, and (d) consistent upward trajectory in global trade.

He added that based on the (HSBC?) study, the PH is expected to leapfrog to become the 16th largest economy in  the world by 2050. Possible.

Good audience, After the two speakers from DFA and Tony spoke, there was an open forum. I spoke, introduced myself as a Fellow of the new regional think tank, South East Asia Network for Development (SEANET), based in Kuala Lumpur, but I am Manila-based. I mentioned that on April 22-24, or three days before the ASEAN  Summit in KL, there will be a big gathering of international and ASEAN-based NGOs called the ASEAN Civil Society Conference (ACSC) and the groups are mostly anti-liberalization, anti-deregulation, anti-privatization and anti-corporate and government-led trade and investments. SEANET exists to help balance this negative perspective by many NGOs and CSOs about trade and economic  integration in the region.

During the networking, before the forum  proper, I met a number of old and new friends Like here, from left: me, Erna Herlina of Indonesian Embassy, Larissa Jefferson of Australian Embassy, and Gene Perez of IRRI (formerly with IPO PH). Gene is a friend way back in the 80s in UP Diliman undergrad.

With Tony Abad (middle) and Gene Gregorio. During the forum, Tony said that it is no  longer a question of whether we say Yes or No to  economic integration + competition. It's already there in front of us, we have to accept it and adjust with  new threats and opportunities -- like expanded, bigger market for our goods and services, bigger choices for producers and consumers, etc.

The three partners sitting -- Alcantara, Abad, Aquino -- and their staff, standing.

Thanks again AAA for that wonderful evening of  networking and forum.
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See also:
Free Trade 42: ASEAN Trade and Unilateral Liberalization Challenge, January 23, 2015 
AEC 3: PCCI Muntinlupa Forum on ASEAN Integration, February 22, 2015 
AEC 4: Malaysia's MITI Presentation, March 19, 2015 
AEC 5: Aviation, Telecom, Mobile Money and Retail in the ASEAN, March 23, 2015 
AEC 6: The ACSC/ASEAN People's Forum (APF) 2015, April 07, 2015

EFN-Asia 6: Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Oct 10-12

The annual Economic Freedom Network (EFN) Asia conference will start tomorrow in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I will be going there as one of the World Cafe Table Hosts on October 11. I will also see there old friends in the Asian free market movement like Barun Mitra (Liberty Institute, India), Parth Shah (Center for Civil Society, India), Aco Patunru (LPEM, Indonesia), Baagi Shagdar (EBI think tank, Mongolia), Feng Xingyuan (Unirule and CIPA, China), Mr. You (Japanese for Tax Reforms), Wan Saiful Wan Jan (IDEAS, Malaysia), Tom Palmer (Atlas, USA), and a few others.


Here is the announcement at the FNF-Manila website, http://www.fnf.org.ph/
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Competition: Engine for Prosperity

The annual Economic Freedom Network Asia (EFN) Conference is set on October 10-13, 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Around 200 economists from all over the world are expected to attend.

The Philippine Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad will give the keynote speech. The role of government in promoting competition, the benefits of competition in public service delivery, and the enforcement of competition policies will be discussed. A resolution is expected to be formulated after the three-day activity. The Economic Freedom of the World Report will also be launched at the event.

The EFN Conference is jointly organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF), Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) and Center for Public Policy Studies (CPPS).

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This will be the 6th EFN-Asia that I will attend. I have attended the 2004-2006 (HK, Phuket, KL respectively) conferences via Jo Kwong and Atlas when Atlas partnered with FNF in holding a one-day forum prior to the EFN main conference, same hotel.

Then I attended the 2009 (Manila, of course) and 2010 (Jakarta) conference. Last year I was a panel moderator (I thanked Jyoti Sachavirawong for the invite) in Jakarta, and this year, I will be one of the Table Hosts, World Cafe, it's a new form of interactive, face to face discussion, rather fast-paced.


A few weeks ago, I attended the CMFR forum on Competition Policy held at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati City. The main speaker was Atty. Tony Abad, also a friend. Tony has been advocating the legislation of a competition policy for at least two decades now. He wants to have a competition policy AND create a new govt bureaucracy called the Fair Trade (or Anti-Trust) Commission at the same time. 


During the open forum, I spoke and argued that government ruling on what is competitive or anti-competitive is already corrupted. Given many players and firms in a particular industry, if my price is higher than my competitors, I can be accused of price gouging. If my price is almost the same as my competitors, then we can be accused of price collusion or price cartelization. If my price is lower than my competitors, I can be accused of predatory pricing. So whatever pricing I will take, I or any player can be accused and harassed by the government's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) or similar bodies.

I further argued that the best "competition policy" is NO policy on the subject. Government will just deregulate all sectors and sub-sectors and allow as many players and competitors as possible. Unfortunately, the main creator of monopolies or oligopolies is the government itself, through the Constitution (especially the 40% maximum foreign equity for many sectors and utilities, reserving the 60% to 100% equity to Filipino businessmen only, which is an indirect form of cronyism and business protectionism). Then we also have a system called Legislative franchising, utilities will first get a franchise from Congress -- and be subject to possible Congressional extortion -- before they secure various business permits from local and national government agencies.


The other national government agencies also have their own set of business regulations and restrictions. Plus the local governments (Mayors, Governors, their respective city/municipal and provincial councils).


Thus, a good competition policy for me, is the removal of many business restrictions in the Constitution, the removal of the Congressional franchising system for utilities, media and other sectors, and for local governments to have liberal policies that are conducive to business, entrepreneurship (micro to medium to large) and job creation.


In the absence of constitutional change that will lift and remove those restrictive policies, it is important to persuade Congress and local governments to have more liberal and pro-market policies.

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See also:
EFN Asia 1: From HK to Phuket to KL, September 16, 2006
EFN Asia 2: Hayek in Asia, September 20, 2010
EFN Asia 3: Conference in Jakarta, October 06, 2010
EFN Asia 4: Migration and Freedom, Jakarta Conference, October 09, 2010
EFN Asia 5: MG Thinkers Now with EFN, October 19, 2010