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Philippines


“Davao pesticide poisoning to expand and increase with JPEPA!”-KMP and APC
The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and the Asian Peasant Coalition lambasted the Tagum Agricultural Development Company, Inc. for causing the pesticide poisoning of at least 79 people in Davao del Norte, Philippines, stressing that "such poisonings would increase and expand when the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) is ratified.”
A critique of the Asian Peasant Coalition against JPEPA
Filipinos will just be getting crumbs for all the trouble and hardship that this agreement would entail. We urge the rural people to oppose JPEPA, launch campaign, education and action against the one-sided agreement. We call on our fellow farmers in Asia, especially in Japan, to help us campaign against this pact.
House resolution filed urging Senate to junk JPEPA
A resolution has been filed by the progressive party-list block in Congress urging the Senate to junk the controversial Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement for being ’one-sided, onerous and inimical to national interest.’
Furor over JPEPA: Will Davao’s banana workers benefit from it?
Most of the bananas from Davao are exported to Japan by Japanese companies such as Sumitomo. These companies and their contract growers or affiliates in Mindanao will benefit from any lowered tariff under JPEPA, not the farmers and plantation workers.
Briefing Paper on the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA)
On December 11, 2003, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi agreed to formally start negotiations for a comprehensive bilateral agreement called the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
Arroyo eyes free trade pact with US by July 2007
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said she wanted the Philippines to forge a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States by July next year. "I told [business leader] Doris Ho... ‘I got President Bush to say yes to the FTA so you write the draft so that we don’t have to go through the years and years of negotiations,’" she said.
Bush encourages continuation of talks on possible RP-US FTA
United States President George W. Bush is in favor of continuing the discussions on a possible US-Philippines Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to further enhance trade relations between the two countries, Philippine Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila said today.
RP urged to pursue competitiveness while bilateral talks with US are on hold
While the result of the recent US elections has put on hold the proposed bilateral Philippine-US free trade negotiations, the Philippines should pursue competitiveness efforts in areas that can not benefit from FTA deals like mining, IT, intellectual property rights, call center and business processing outsourcing, according to Matthew Daley, president of the US-ASEAN Business Council.
DFA official: JPEPA not well-negotiated
A senior Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) official yesterday admitted that the Philippines may not have considered its national interest during the negotiations of the controversial free trade agreement with Japan signed last September.
Fair Trade Statement on JPEPA, October 2006
The Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), signed on the sidelines of the Helsinki’s ASEAN-Europe Meeting (ASEM) held in September this year, sidelines the development needs of the Philippines and further enhances the imbalances in the economic relations between the two countries.
FairTrade-Philippines’ Statement on RP-US Agreement
After concluding the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), the government appears to be pursuing a similar bilateral free trade agreement (BFTA) with the United States. But like in the JPEPA, the RP-US trade talks are shrouded in secrecy.
Another JPEPA deception
JPEPA’s promise of opening up Japanese borders to Filipino professionals may not exactly be true and Filipino nurses and health workers delighted over Malacañang pronouncements may have celebrated too early.
Alliance forged vs RP-Japan trade pact
From militants to high society matrons, citizens’ groups have embarked on a joint effort to fight the ratification of a controversial Philippine-Japan economic agreement they fear would turn the country into a “garbage republic” for Japan’s toxic and hazardous waste.
Militants to take fight vs trade pact to Japan
The militant leftist group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) is bringing the struggle against the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) right to the heart of that North Asian country—the Diet—to ask its members to reject the onerous trade pact.
Fair Trade statement on JPEPA
We, at the Fair Trade Alliance (FTA), bewail the lack of transparency in the way the executive branch of the Philippine government is crafting the JPEPA.
KMP threatens boycott of Japanese products: Farmers’ group urges Japan not to push through with JPEPA
The Japanese government will send its big commercial fishing vessels to the Philippines’ most productive fishing grounds in search of yellowfin tuna and skip jack instead of importing it directly from the Philippines under the controversial trade pact between the two countries.
JPEPA will allow Japan to exploit RP’s tuna resources—group
A militant coalition of fishermen groups protested the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) as it will allow Japanese transnational fishing companies to corner the country’s tuna resources.
RP ready to engage US in sectoral bilateral free trade talks
The Philippines is ready to officially engage the US on a possible sectoral bilateral free trade agreement, Trade and Industry Secretary Peter B. Favila said Thursday.
RP stands to lose P9b a year in tariff revenues under JPEPA
The Philippines stands to lose more than P9 billion annually in tariff revenues under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). Meanwhile, the gains to Philippine exports that government economic managers claim will happen under JPEPA are similarly overstated. Some 80% of Philippine exports to Japan already enter tariff-free and will not be affected by the free trade pact.
Int’l group urges Senate to reject RP-Japan trade pact
Saying Japan’s motives were "highly suspect," an international monitoring group urged the Philippine Senate on Tuesday to reject a controversial economic deal with Japan unless toxic wastes were removed from the list of products that could be brought into the Philippines.