Group seeks TRO against implementation of JPEPA

MANILA, Philippines – The multisectoral Fair Trade Alliance (FairTrade) has recently filed a motion with the Supreme Court (SC) asking for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the implementation of the Japan Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) because it allegedly violates the Constitution and the trade between Japan and the Philippines did not improve in spite of the agreement.

“The JPEPA continues to wreak havoc in our domestic agriculture and industry. The agreement even attacks our national sovereignty,” FairTrade executive director Mars Mendoza said. “Now that JPEPA is in the implementation stage even without the final determination of the agreement’s constitutionality, the unevenness of the agreement is clearly out in the open.”

She noted the presentation made by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) at the House of Representatives’ Special Committee on Globalization and WTO hearing on January 26, 2011, wherein representatives from DTI alleged that the Philippines’ market share in Japan increased. However, Mendoza said the data presented proves otherwise. Total imports of Japan from the Philippines went down post-JPEPA.

Japan’s imports from the Philippines pre-JPEPA were 7, 959, 972 in 2006; 8,731, 229 in 2007 and 8, 426, 185 in 2008. These figures are way high compared to post-JPEPA when Japan’s total imports from the Philippines only totaled 6,333, 769.

“During the ratification stage of the JPEPA in 2006, DTI made a bold projection that Philippine exports to Japan will soar by 95 percent because of the zero tariff regimes. It looks like they contradicted themselves with the new figures,” Mendoza added.

Mendoza also noted that JPEPA was the subject of the fifty-seventh session of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Committee of Regional Trade Agreements (CRTA) held in 2010 wherein various trade negotiatiors from different developed countries cited the lopsidedness of the JPEPA against the Philippines. –Ma. Elisa P. Osorio (The Philippine Star)