AFTA: Boosting or Busting the Philippine Animal Industry?
The development of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and significant reductions in import duties which can be levied on ASEAN-originating goods, removes the key impediment to intra-regional trade within ASEAN. This brings this ten-member region another step closer to integration into a regional market with a size of about 560 million people.
While every sector stands to gain from the reduction in import duties, some animal industry key players in the Philippines are quite apprehensive – and seem to be suffering from AFTAphobia, the “fear of the unknown.” The questions plaguing their minds are: What lies ahead? What’s the prospect of the Philippine animal industry? What must be done to survive beyond 2010?
The Philippine College of Veterinary Feed Practitioner (PCVFP) is inviting you to its Technical Forum on “AFTA: Is the Philippine Animal Industry Ready?” at the BAI Animal Feed Standard Division Conference Hall on August 25, 2009 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon.
Dr. Jaime A. Sison, PCVFP charter president and Foremost Farms consultant, will tackle the vital and much-awaited topic, “AFTA: Boosting or Busting the Philippine Animal Industry?,” during the Technical Forum.
Raw materials and finished product importers, suppliers, veterinarians, nutritionists and all others involved in animal and feed production have been invited to attend the Technical Forum, according to Dr. Rafael Luis Morillo, PCVFP vice president.
Dr. Alice Layson is the emcee of the Technical Forum.
