MANILA - President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. will sign an executive order (EO) that will operationalize the tariff schemes under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said Thursday.

The agreement, which will bring down tariffs for many imported goods, will go into effect for the Philippines by June 2, 2023, Pascual said.

The draft EO was among the measures approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) board, which Marcos chairs, Pascual added.

"The EO shall be the basis of the BOC for the issuance of the Bureau of Customs for the issuance of customs administrative order which shall be distributed to all ports to allow for the implementation for the preferential tariffs on imports from RCEP member countries," Pascual told Palace reporters.

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Pascual again allayed concerns that RCEP will lead to a flood of cheap imports that will drown out locally made goods, especially agricultural products.

He said the draft EO will also maintain current preferential tariffs on about 98.1 percent of the 1,718 agricultural tariff lines and 82.7 percent of the 8,102 tariff lines.

"Out of the 1,685 agricultural tariff lines retained at current rates, 1,426 tariff lines are maintained at 0 while 154 tariff lines will remain in their respective most favored nation rates and excluded from any tariff concessions," he said.

Agricultural tariffs on 105 lines, he said, which are in the sensitive and highly sensitive list shall be "generally lower than MFN rates in the 20th year of RCEP."

Their rates, however, will still be higher or at par at ASEAN plus 1 rates.

"There is really not one going below the ASEAN plus 1 rates to which the Philippines is already committed," he noted.

The draft EO will reduce tariff rates on the remaining 33 important lines "upon entry into force or implement gradual reduction over a period of 15 to 20 years."

These tariff lines will include agricultural products "not really being produced very much" in the country, he said.

RCEP is the largest regional free trade agreement in the world, accounting for 30 percent of the world's population, 29 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), 29 percent of trade and 33 percent of global inward investments in 2020, the Department of Finance earlier said.

The Senate approved the ratification of the country's membership here last Feb. 21.

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Video from PTV