Group seeks review of trade agreements

A coalition of sectoral organizations has asked apparent president-elect Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd to revisit trade agreements that had been entered into by the Philippines.

“We recommend that your administration take a step back and revisit ATIGA [Asean Trade in Goods Agreement] and other trade agreements, conduct real and exhaustive consultations, take stock of the direct gains and the real cost of entering into these agreements, renegotiate for better terms including but not limited to the recalibration of tariff or postponement of the accelerated timetables for zero tariff levels before submitting them to the Senate for concurrence,” the Trade Advocates Group (TAG) said in a letter addressed to Aquino.

TAG is composed of the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural  Development, Asian Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Asia, Fair Trade Alliance, Freedom from Debt Coalition, Integrated Rural Development Foundation, International Gender and Trade Network, Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services Inc., Kaisampalad Inc., Kilusang Mangingisda, Oxfam, Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development Foundation Inc., Rice Watch and Action Network and Tambuyog Development Center.

It particularly cited ATIGA, which the group said came into force “without prior genuine public consultation.”

“Trade policy should always be a product of adequate and genuine consultations which [ATIGA], as most of the other agreements we entered into, lack,” according to the group.

Tariff cuts

TAG said that the Philippines is unprepared for a region-wide low-tariff regime.

“Our country has liberalized too fast, too soon relative to our neighboring countries, while government implementation and delivery of productivity enhancing measures and programs have been few, far between and incoherent,” it added.

TAG said that the Philippines’ trade deficit with member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has been increasing in recent years.

Government data showed that the Philippines imported $14.3-billion worth of goods from Asean member-countries in 2008, while it only exported a total of $7-billion worth of products to its neighbors in the region in the same period.

The Philippines has a negative trade balance with other Asean members, except with Cambodia and Myanmar.

Asean also groups Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

“A policy of continued liberalization [and] absent substantial productivity enhancing investment especially in important commodity sub-sectors [are] bound to further undermine the Philippines’ trade standing within the region,” TAG said.

The group recommended that the next administration increase allocation for productivity-enhancing programs and projects; ensure rational policy sequencing; maintain the government’s authority to enforce import licensing requirements and other nontariff measures; improve the country’s capability to develop and enforce sanitary and phytosanitary measures; and follow a “development paradigm with national interest at the core.” –BEN ARNOLD O. DE VERA Reporter, Manila Times