Free trade agreements (FTAs) are as crucial as military treaties, fighter jets, frigates, and missiles in defending the country’s sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

(For the uninitiated, an economic  FTA, says our Customs bureau, is “an agreement between two or more nations to reduce barriers to imports and exports among them.”)

In fact, any discussion on FTAs will be important in the trilateral summit in Washington among the Philippines, the United States and Japan.

Economics will figure largely on the agenda of the Washington conference since the three partners are expected, as one strategic brief put it, “to discuss supportive measures to help sustain the triad’s economies, especially the Philippines’ shock-sensitive economy.”

An FTA is one specific supportive measure. But more on this later.

Meanwhile, politically notable is the fact that prior to the summit officials of the three countries were one in saying that strengthening economic relations and cooperation is the summit’s “primary focus.”

Though China’s pronounced aggressiveness looms large in the summit’s background — prompting the focus on economic relations that, as one analyst put it, “circumvents perceptions of the meeting being an overtly anti-China one” — the emphasis on coordinated economic partnerships highlights the fact that partnerships are also putative security measures.

What that means essentially is that it’s crucial the Philippines deepens its current economic partnerships with the United States and Japan because stronger economic partnerships prevents Chinese economic coercion and other problems arising from a crisis.

This is explainable since the country “is exceedingly vulnerable to external shocks — any disruptions in the country’s energy and supply chains would not only complicate everyday functions within the country but impact the ability of both the Philippines and the United States to conduct security operations from the country,” say Gregory B. Poling and Japhet Quitzon in a brief for the Center of Strategic and International Studies.

That the country is vulnerable to energy and supply chain shocks, made worse by the lack of stockpiles, makes it imperative that the US and Japan ensure the Philippine economy remains stable and robust.

One method of ensuring a robust Philippine economy is to negotiate FTAs with the US and Japan, especially on the country’s mineral resources.

Fortunately, the Marcos administration is presently pitching FTAs to the Americans.

Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez recently told news outfit Nikkei Asia the country is in talks with Washington to sign a “sectoral free trade agreement” which would make the country’s nickel eligible for a US subsidy.

A recently passed American subsidy law is “tied to critical minerals used in the (electric) vehicle batteries being sourced from within the US or a country with which it has an FTA,” reported Nikkei Asia.

Romualdez said the government is only negotiating for a specific FTA on nickel since the US is “not too keen about having a total FTA.”

While FTAs are not currently being pursued by the Biden administration, geopolitical strategists insist, however, the US must be convinced to change its tack since a proliferation of FTAs with Southeast Asian nations could serve as a bulwark against Chinese economic coercion.

Romualdez said the government is keen on an FTA on nickel since it is a crucial component of electric vehicle batteries. At present, the country exports most of its nickel ore to China.

But an FTA on nickel with the US, Japan and even the European Union can dramatically alter the present lopsided arrangements.  And, more importantly, attract needed foreign investments to build the more profitable smelting and nickel ore refineries here.

Leveraging the country’s strong comparative advantage in nickel and other minerals, therefore, is important in spurring rapid economic development and providing relatively high-paying jobs for Filipino workers.

Spurring rapid development through the mining of mineral resources, however, cannot come at the expense of our fragile environment — a daunting challenge the Marcos administration must face sooner than later.