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CURRENT
efforts at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to speed
up talks on the Doha Round of negotiations could have
huge implications for the Philippines, but civil-society
organizations (CSOs) lamented that Malacañang did not
give instructions to Philippine negotiators as to the
strategies that should be adopted during the talks.
In a
press briefing in Quezon City on Tuesday, CSOs, led by
the Rice Watch Action Network (R1), Tambuyog Development
Center (TDC) and Stop the New Round Coalition, also
disclosed that the Philippine government is not ready
for the WTO Miniministerial meetings currently being
held in Geneva, Switzerland.
R1 lead
convenor Jessica Cantos revealed that during the recent
meetings of the Task Force-WTO Agriculture Renegotiation
(TF-WAR), which includes government officials, there was
no mention of instructions from Malacañang on how
negotiators should approach the meetings in Geneva.
“We have
not heard of any instruction from Malacañang on the
position that will be taken by negotiators in Geneva
during the talks,” said Cantos at the sidelines of the
press briefing.
The
apparent indifference of the government to defend the
country’s interests at the current WTO meetings, the
CSOs noted, is a far cry from the stance it has taken
during the 2006 Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting, when
President Arroyo herself directed the Philippine
delegation to “preserve the country’s policy space.”
“We went
[to Geneva] with no common agenda, and it would be
obvious that we did not prepare for the talks.
Nagkanya-kanya ’yung mga agencies concerned [Each
agency was to his own] like the Department of
Agriculture and the Department of Trade and Industry,”
said Aurora Regalado, coconvenor of R1.
As of
press time, the press secretary could not be reached for
comment.
Cantos
and Regalado said this “lamentable” situation could have
been prevented if only the Philippines has an
institution like the Philippine Trade Representative
Office.
CSOs
also expressed their misgivings about the current talks
in Geneva, considering that the United States government
appears to be reluctant to slash subsidies as indicated
in its latest Farm Bill.
Meanwhile, Stop the New Round Coalition (SNR) said the
draft modalities currently being discussed should be
rejected as it will be catastrophic to a developing
country like the Philippines, which has very low bound
rates.
“The
trade proposals represent the latest attempt by
developed countries to severely constrict the
flexibilities given to developing countries in this
supposedly ‘development’ round of negotiations and makes
a ‘mockery’ of the principle of special and differential
treatment accorded to developing countries,” said SNR’s
Joseph Purungganan.
Ephraim
Batungbacal of TDC, a fishery nongovernment
organization, supported this view. He said that in the
Nonagriculture Market Access negotiations, steep tariff
cuts are in store for developing countries after the
binding formula is applied, at percentages that are
nearly twice those of the developed countries.
“For
example, using the proposed 12-percent to 14-percent
coefficient range for developing countries, the
Philippines would cut its tariffs at an average of 44
percent, while the US, using the proposed coefficient
range of 7 percent to 9 percent for developed countries,
would have tariff cuts averaging only 24 percent. This
is special and differential treatment applied in
reverse; not for the developing but for the developed
countries,” said Batungbacal.
The WTO
Miniministerial was organized by director general Pascal
Lamy as a way to break the impasse on the Doha Round of
negotiations. Only 37 countries, including the
Philippines, were invited to join the talks. The meeting
will end on July 26. |
