British Chamber hosts year-end gathering on UK-PH meat trade, discusses food security and inflation

On Nov. 30, 2023, Chris Nelson, British Chamber of Commerce Philippines (BCCP) Executive director/trustee highlighted the Chamber’s consistent support and advocacy on ensuring food security and boosting trade and investments in the country by putting emphasis on the UK-PH meat trade and successfully celebrating its Philippine-British Meat Trade Mission Year-end Gathering at One World Butchers, Makati City.

The event is in partnership with the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and was attended by over 50 attendees from meat importers and distributors, officials from the Philippine government namely: Undersecretary Deogracias Victor B. Savellano of the Department of Agriculture, Department of Trade and Industry Food and Agri-Marine Division and Bureau of Import Services, Bureau of Customs Chief of Port Operations Coordination Division Atty. Ferdinand T. Pauig alongside representatives from the UK Department for Business and Trade and His Majesty’s Ambassador to the Philippines Laure Beaufils who delivered the opening remarks.

As noted by Nelson’s interview prior to the event: “The key is going to be that British pork in particular has obviously helped with food security and inflation. We see that trend continuing and this is just reinforcing those ties while also bringing back the key aspects of British pork in terms of the safety and standards that are being applied in the UK.”

In line with this is the Chamber’s support to the extension of lowered tariffs on meat to which it presented its position paper to the Tariff Commission last October 2023 to call on the Executive Order No. 10 to be extended until the end of 2024. Additionally, the British Chamber consistently supports the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act which is noted as a key priority of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.–with food security at the forefront of the national agenda, and is expected to pass in its final reading before the end of the year.

The success of this event only signifies the ever-growing UK-PH trade relations reaching a £2.9 billion total of trade in goods and services to which meat being the top three UK goods exports to the Philippines. This has also noted the