Group calls for FTA moratorium
Business Insight Malaya, Philippines
Group calls for FTA moratorium
By Irma Isip
7 June 2010
Civil society is asking the incoming administration for a moratorium on all pending trade agreements pending thorough consultation and study.
Leading the campaign is the Trade Advocates Group (TAG), a network of non-governmental organizations and basic sectors working towards pro-people national trade agenda.
Former senator Sen. Wigberto Tañada, lead convenor of Fair Trade Alliance, warned against rushing headlong into trade agreements unprepared.
The country is currently undertaking talks on economic cooperation with the United States, the European Union and India.
FairTrade is a member of TAG.
"The Philippines must follow its own development paradigm with national interest at the core. We should stop the race to the bottom that neo-liberals have instituted for more than twenty years now. Government should realize now that it is not a case of one size fits all."
Addressing presumptive president Noynoy Aquino, Tañada said, "your government is in a position to reverse the ill-effects of unbridled liberalization, help our ailing industries and agriculture, save jobs and make the lives of Filipinos better."
Tanada said the average agriculture tariff in the Philippines is less than a third of Thailand’s applied tariffs, the reason the latter’s exports are growing three times faster than the Philippines’.
He said local tariffs are second lowest at about 20 percent after Singapore. He said China and India have adopted a tariff schedule of 40, 60 and 80 percent.
"We must take the step to recalibrate to the
level undertaken by Thailand, Indonesia, etc. We have been opening up too fast. Meanwhile, the industrial sector remains stagnant and the agriculture sector remains backward and unmodernized. The incoming administration should be decisive in enforcing the corrective measures," Tanada said.
Tanada likewise proposed the crafting of an agro-industrial master plan which will promote the development of viable industrial and agricultural sectors based on continuous capacity building and industrial complementation.
"We must ensure these agreements bring about reciprocal benefits to our people and that they help develop our industry and agriculture, thus creating the very much needed jobs for our people," he said.
TAG is particularly calling on the incoming administration for a halt in the implementation of the Asean Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA), saying this is disadvantageous to local industries, particularly agriculture.
TAG said the country’s trade deficit with Asean has been growing, rather than declining.
ATIGA is a regional trade agreement which covers trade-related rules and regulations, including tariff liberalization, non-tariff barrier liberalization, rules of origin, trade facilitation, customs procedures, standards and conformance, and sanitary and phytosanitary measures. It came into force at the start of the year.
ATIGA aims to achieve free flow of goods in Asean as one of the principal means in establishing a single market and production base for the deeper economic integration of the region towards the realization of the Asean economic community by 2015.
