ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the historical development of the Philippines automotive industry, which can be classified into four phases. The first phase (1951–1972) is associated with ISI policy. The second phase (1973–1995) is characterised by localisation policies. The third phase (1996–2002) is characterised by liberalisation of the industry under World Bank conditionality. The fourth phase (2003–the present), conducted under WTO rules, includes the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) in 2015. The industry declined throughout the 2000s. Despite the lack of success of industrial policies in the Philippines in terms of automotive assembly, certain types of automotive component production, particularly transmissions, which were established under earlier local content provisions and foreign exchange balancing requirement policies, are internationally competitive and serve as export platforms within Southeast Asia; the other main component export, wiring harnesses (an electrical item) owes more to low-cost but educated labour. The new industrial policy, CARS, hopes to develop the automotive industry further by 2022, with an intended domestic output of over 500,000 vehicles. The Philippines’ economy is expected to grow in the future, but the industry faces challenges such as low local content ratios, competition from imported second-hand vehicles, and from cars imported under free trade agreements.
