Recognizing the importance of an outward-oriented policy approach, countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines have liberalized their regulation on foreign direst investment by introducing various guarantees and incentives. The Philippines, however, lagged behind its...

The Philippines has been one among the few that still adheres to the home consumption valuation (HCV), a system that, according to many importers, results to overvaluation. This article assesses the validity of the claim through analysis of HCV’s impact on the level of protection structure. It...

This paper looks at the regulatory reforms in the electricity and downstream oil industries, two important inputs to the production process that were heavily regulated by the government. While electricity has strong externalities as well as economies of scale and scope, the oil industry does not...

One of the recent European developments is the plan of creating a single market implying the removal of obstacles to trade in goods, services, capital and labor. Hence, it is worthwhile to examine the impact of such move to a small country like the Philippines, the growth of which depends...

This paper looks at the regulatory reforms in the electricity and downstream oil industries, two important inputs to the production process that were heavily regulated by the government. While electricity has strong externalities as well as economies of scale and scope, the oil industry does not...

The industry’s lack of competitiveness, absence of economies of scale and a weak supply base are the fundamental issues that must be addressed in order to strengthen the industry and integrate it with regional production networks of foreign automakers. The entry of cheap, smuggled second-hand...

The Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme represents the main mechanism to remove barriers to intra-ASEAN trade. Its adoption will entail intraregional tariffs ranging from zero to five percent. AFTA and the increasing globalization (which occurs through trade and foreign direct...

This paper looks at the emerging issues and problems in promoting competition policy and coordinating its implementation under regional arrangements, particularly the APEC and the ASEAN. Implementing competition policy is a big challenge. As the review of country experiences shows,...

The development of the Philippine automotive parts and components sector is critical to the automotive assembly industry. The availability of competitive parts and components that are locally manufactured can significantly contribute to boost the competitiveness of the assembly sector. Given the...

This paper aims to review the impact of the various tariff legislations passed from 1998 to 2003 on the structure of protection in the Philippines. The paper finds that while the overall level of effective protection has declined, it has remained uneven as some selected sectors have continued to...