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Senate President Miguel Zubiri on Tuesday urged people opposing the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and look at the bigger picture, especially on how this may help the country.
The RCEP is a free trade pact between all Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states, as well as six of the regional bloc’s trade partners, including Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand.
“We have to look at the totality of this measure. The totality of how many people it can help in the future. I’m here to listen to the pros and cons of the measure, but in the end we have to look at the overall picture of how this would help our country to grow into tiger status,” said Zubiri during the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations’ deliberations on whether the country should ratify the said trade agreement.
Zubiri even noted that, considering there are 14 out of 15 signatory countries who have already ratified RCEP, the said partnership must have economic benefits.
“And I say this because, out of the 15 countries that had signed on, we’re the only one that has not ratified. There must have been something good for 14 other countries in the ASEAN region, plus – China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, and Australia to sign on,” Zubiri said.
