JPEPA

The controversial free trade pact between the Philippines and Japan is currently being reviewed by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to ensure the agreement’s transparency, the Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday said.

Domestic truck assemblers have asked the government to delay for three years the tariff reduction on certain trucks and buses, as provided for under Manila’s commitment to the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).

JAPANESE investors are looking at the Philippines as an alternative to China and Vietnam, the managing head of the Board of Investments said.

Even as he has yet to sit in his presumed-to-be new post as next President of the country, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III is already being beset by demands for him to act on issues that have borne controversy in the outgoing Arroyo administration.

Japanese companies have raised the high local electricity prices, the lack of infrastructure and the need to improve the tax refund system between Japan and the Philippines as among the major constraints to the exchange of benefits under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa), the first free trade agreement for the country.

SAYS JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER MANILA, Philippines—Japan should “open up” to the world once more, including to more non-Japanese nurses, Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said in a speech during the Sixteenth International Conference on the Future of Asia hosted by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on May 20.

TOKYO, Japan – Three foreign nurses on Friday passed the Japanese nursing exam, the first to do so under Japan’s drive to attract Asians to help ease the nation’s severe shortage of nurses.

After a year and two months of implementation, the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) has ushered an increase in the bilateral trade between Japan and the Philippines by 218 percent, records show. Based on the 2009 year-end data provided by Japan’s Information and Culture Center Director Tomoko Dodo, the trade between Tokyo and Manila involving…

THE Philippine Overseas Employment Administration in Central Visayas has started accepting a second batch of caregiver and nursing applicants for Japan.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino nurses, caregivers and factory workers can look forward to more jobs in Japan and South Korea.

ONE YEAR AFTER PACT’S IMPLEMENTATION A year after its implemen-tation, the governments of the Philippines and Japan have expressed “general satisfaction” over the achievements of the controversial free trade agreement (FTA) they had forged.

CEBU, Philippines – After the global financial crisis reportedly affected industries, with some countries stopping their hiring of workers including nurses and caregivers, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration announced that the second batch of recruitment for nurses and caregivers to Japan would start soon.

MANILA, Philippines—A year after it has taken effect, the controversial Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) was reviewed here by both parties Friday as required by the treaty.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has reaffirmed its commitment to ensure the smooth and effective implementation of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) as both countries expressed general satisfaction in the overall achievements of the year-old trade agreement.

MANILA, Philippines – The Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) is starting to render wide-ranging benefits to both countries as seen in the 24-percent increase in Philippine banana export to Japan due to tariff reduction and the dispatch of more than 300 Filipino candidates for nurses and caregivers to Japan this year, according to Japanese Ambassador…

Automotive industry workers have expressed concern that they might lose their jobs with the lowering of tariffs starting next year under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement.

SINGAPORE—Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Saturday said that his country, which is battling low birth rates and an aging population, should make itself more attractive to migrants.

IN the boardrooms of Japan’s top corporations can be heard the chuckles of disbelief over the new government’s people-first agenda to jump-start the economy. The sniggers, however, soon give way to a sober realization among members of the so-called Keidanren: the old ways that gave birth to, and nurtured Japan Inc., may soon vanish.

VEHICLE assemblers and parts makers are pushing to extend up to 2013 the tariff cover under the Japan Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement in parallel moves to protect the automotive industry from being displaced by Japanese imports.

TOKYO — Talks to expand the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) are already underway to increase the deployment of Filipino workers and the export of more Philippine products, six months after the free trade agreement took effect, President Arroyo said yesterday.

The deployment of Filipino nurses and caregivers to Japan is expected to pick up as the Philippine and Japan sign today a memorandum of understanding for school courses under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) on the Movement of Natural Persons, the Japanese Embassy in Manila reported Thursday.

MANILA, Philippines—The details of how Filipino nurses and caregivers who graduated from Philippine schools can work in Japan will be the subject of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that the Philippines and Japan are scheduled to sign tomorrow, June 5.

With tears in their eyes, Vilma Balatbat, 39, and her husband tightly embraced each other, knowing it would be some time before they would be together again.

MANILA, Philippines – A total of 273 Filipina nurses and caregivers left yesterday for Japan as part of an agreement between the Japanese government and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

MANILA, Philippines—While he welcomed the job opportunity for the country’s health workers, Nueva Vizcaya Representative Carlos Padilla warned that the conditions set by the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) on the hiring of Filipino nurses and caregivers could only lead to their exploitation.

MANILA, Philippines – Close to 400 Filipino nurses and caregivers are leaving for Japan this weekend, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) reported yesterday.

NURSES and caregivers from the Philippines are still expected to benefit from the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership (JPEPA) despite the lingering global financial woes, an envoy said.

The country’s largest labor group will support the Senate ratification of the proposed Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), provided the government agrees to establish a P2-billion safety net for workers who may be dislocated by the freer entry here of Japanese merchandise.

The country’s largest labor union sought yesterday a P2-billion emergency fund for workers likely to be displaced when the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) takes effect.

The Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement is expected to cost the national coffers as much as P4.75 billion in the first year of its implementation, according to a study conducted by the Department of Finance.