Philippines, India taking concrete steps towards launching formal trade talks: President Marcos

INDIA and the Philippines are taking concrete steps towards launching formal negotiations for a Preferential Trade Agreement, Philippines President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr said on Wednesday.

Addressing the 'India-Philippines CEO Roundtable Meeting', organised by FICCI, here, President Marcos emphasised that the Philippines and India see the PTA as a strategic platform to harness their shared strengths and elevate our economic partnership.

"We are working to find common ground to make the PTA come as quickly as possible. We have found ways to quicken the process with strong support from both government and business chambers, we are taking concrete steps towards launching formal negotiations," he said, according to a release issued by FICCI.

Marcos also stated that the government has taken a slew of measures to attract more Indian investments by ensuring ease of doing business in the Philippines.

"These reforms show our commitment to creating a truly enabling environment for investors, including our valued partners in India. We are encouraged by the growing momentum in our bilateral trade, which reached USD 3.3 billion in 2024-2025 and there is a scope to achieve exponential growth," he added.

He further said that the Philippines Department of Trade and Industry will work with Indian counterparts, to soon convene the meeting of the Joint Working Group on trade and investment.

"We are not only going to have meetings of joint working group on trade and investment, but we will also granulate down to industry-specific working groups," Marcos noted.

Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry, said that India and the Philippines are celebrating 75 years of unwavering friendship, diplomatic relations, and there is huge potential before us in the years to come. The bilateral trade, he said, today is very low and starting from a low base, our ambitions should be huge.

"This is one partnership where we should only aim for exponential growth and not be satisfied with incremental growth at all. Let us work together and collaborate in areas like healthcare, pharmaceuticals, information technology, science, innovation and agriculture," he stressed.

Goyal also stated that both nations are working on a Preferential Trade Agreement and have finalised the terms of reference.

"We can use this as a basis for strengthening our bilateral ties and expanding businesses in both nations. As we move towards becoming the third-largest economy in the world in the next couple of years and as we take the Indian economy from the current USD 4 trillion to USD 30 trillion by 2047, we would look at the Philippines as our trusted partner," he emphasised.