KNOWN AS THE Philippines’ most comprehensive bilateral agreement during the last half-century, the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) holds much promise to facilitate and encourage free trans-border flow of goods, individuals, capital and services between Japan and the Philippines as economic relations are bound to strengthen as a result.
   Ten specific fields have been identified and prioritized, each singling out possible areas of cooperation. These are human resource development, financial services, information and communications technology, energy and environment, science and technology, trade and investment promotion, small and medium enterprises, tourism, transportation, and road development.
   The Agreement also paves the way for simplified and specific methods of cooperation wherein the country’s individual strengths are played up in order to gain more leeway, while seeking new avenues to buffer up other areas requiring some form of assistance and reinforcement.
   Better yet, the JPEPA has been termed as a new age Free Trade Area, or FTA, wherein such trade pacts have been developed in response to the pressures arising from the growing trend in regionalism along with increasing globalization and technological progress.
   The private sector is expected to play a most instrumental role since their feedback remains a sought-after priority of the JPEPA ratification process, also the the business sector since they have always played a critical role in the advancement of the country’s financial standing for the past several decades.

                                The Local Setting
   In Cebu, regional consultations were conducted by the Universal Access to Competitiveness and Trade (U-ACT) Office of the Special Envoy for Trade Negotiations, and the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) last week at the Cebu Parklane International Hotel.
   Certain sectors that were singled out for more headway were agriculture, medical care, information technology fields, and the tourism and retirement industry, to a certain extent.
 

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