Opportunities from RCEP for Vietnamese goods exports to the Philippines market
Advantages from harmonized rules of origin and expanded preferential tariff options when exporting to the Philippines
With its large membership, RCEP provides advantages through the harmonization of rules of origin, which helps increase the likelihood of qualifying for preferential tariff treatment for exports to the Philippines. Specifically, RCEP allows the cumulation of originating materials from all 15 RCEP member countries, enabling enterprises’ products to more easily satisfy the rules of origin and benefit from preferential tariffs under the Agreement compared with ATIGA or ASEAN+1 FTAs.
In practice, most RCEP members such as China, Japan, and ASEAN countries are major sources of raw materials and intermediate inputs for Viet Nam. As a result, Vietnamese products are more likely to meet RCEP rules of origin, and the utilization rate of RCEP tariff preferences is therefore expected to be higher than under ATIGA or ASEAN+1 agreements.
RCEP does not replace other FTAs but operates in parallel with them. This allows Vietnamese enterprises to choose the most advantageous tariff preference and rules of origin regime among different agreements when exporting to the Philippines. For example, while preferential tariffs under ATIGA may sometimes be more favorable than those under RCEP, the rules of origin under ATIGA can be more difficult to satisfy. In such cases, enterprises may choose to apply the RCEP rules of origin and enjoy the corresponding preferential tariff treatment as the most beneficial option.
Opportunities from the reduction of non-tariff barriers
The RCEP Agreement includes numerous commitments on customs simplification and trade facilitation, as well as provisions aimed at facilitating the mutual recognition or equivalence of SPS measures and encouraging the recognition of conformity assessment results under TBT frameworks. These commitments help reduce unnecessary non-tariff barriers between Viet Nam and the Philippines, thereby enabling Vietnamese goods to access the Philippine market more easily.Cơ hội cắt giảm chi phí, cải thiện năng lực cạnh tranh
Opportunities to reduce costs and enhance competitiveness
Thanks to the advantages of regional rules of origin cumulation, Viet Nam can import raw materials and inputs—especially those where domestic production lacks comparative advantage—from other RCEP member countries at more competitive prices. This helps reduce production costs and allows Vietnamese finished products to achieve stronger price competitiveness in the Philippine market.
In addition, RCEP contains a wide range of commitments in services and institutional frameworks that can help manufacturing and exporting enterprises reduce costs and enhance competitiveness, such as:
- Market opening commitments in producer services, including finance, telecommunications, and logistics, which are expected to intensify competition in these sectors. This will enable manufacturing enterprises to access services with higher quality and more reasonable costs, thereby reducing service costs embedded in product prices.
- Commitments promoting a competitive environment and modern trade practices, including provisions on competition policy, e-commerce, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These commitments help production enterprises—particularly SMEs and micro-enterprises—improve competitiveness and better access customers.
More broadly, RCEP consistently promotes trade and investment liberalization, non-discrimination, transparency, and trade facilitation among member economies. These commitments contribute to a more favorable business and legal environment in Viet Nam, reducing compliance costs and administrative time for enterprises, thereby facilitating production as well as export–import activities.
Furthermore, to a certain extent, Vietnamese enterprises may have an advantage compared with firms from several other RCEP members, as they do not need to incur significant additional compliance costs to meet RCEP commitments. This is because Viet Nam has already implemented higher-standard commitments under next-generation FTAs such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU–Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). As a result, Vietnamese goods are considered to have certain competitive advantages compared with those from some other RCEP member countries in this regard.
Source: Center for WTO and International Trade - VCCI
