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MOST
economists are agreed the Japan-Philippines Economic
Partnership Agreement (Jpepa) will be economically
beneficial to the Philippines now that it has been
ratified, but they also said it is imperfect and called
for safeguards to avoid negative effects from an
imperfect treaty.
Late
Wednesday night, 16 senators voted in favor of
ratification of the Malacańang-endorsed agreement,
hoping it would improve existing trade ties with Tokyo
even as four senators—Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel
Jr., Francis Escudero, Consuelo Madrigal and Noynoy
Aquino—who voted against the accord denounced it as a
lopsided deal in favor of Japan and blamed government
negotiators for a “sellout.”
Voting
for Jpepa were Sens. Edgardo Angara, Rodolfo Biazon,
Alan Cayetano, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Jinggoy
Estrada, Juan Ponce Enrile, Richard Gordon, Gregorio
Honasan, Panfilo Lacson, Loren Legarda, Lito Lapid,
Francis Pangilinan, Ramon Revilla, Mar Roxas II, Miguel
Zubiri and Senate President Manuel Villar.
In
casting his no vote, Escudero said Jpepa was “a poorly
and badly negotiated treaty” that gave up almost
everything in the country, which is getting almost
nothing.
He said
the Japanese cannot be blamed for fighting their best
interests. “However, our negotiators should not be
forgiven for not doing their homework, not following the
letter and intent of our Constitution, not obeying laws
passed by Congress, not protecting the best interests of
our country and people and for selling out on our
country’s birthright.”
Senator
Aquino warned: “What we give away today cannot be used
to bargain with in the future.” He noted that under the
Jpepa, Japan has reserved 197 tariff lines while the
Philippines excluded only two, “leaving the rest of our
agricultural products open to competition from Japan.”
Even
worse, Aquino added, Japan maintains protection for
agricultural products where the Philippines does not yet
pose a threat to its domestic economy, limiting our
potential for growth. However, the same protection is
not given to Philippine products.
Aquino
said the focus of projected remittances as a result of
Jpepa is the deployment of nurses to Japan, but the
desire of graduating nurses here to be deployed to Japan
was not even manifested during deliberations.
“The
increase in our industrial exports is threatened by the
fact that our manufacturing sector is constantly on the
decline. It has been claimed that our nonratification of
this treaty will result in decreased economic activity
with Japan, because Japan may prefer to engage with
those countries with whom it has effective economic
partnership agreements. We have achieved our current
levels of trade with Japan without Jpepa. No
deterioration of these levels has been shown as a direct
consequence of Japan’s enactment of its EPAs with other
countries,” Aquino added.
Sen.
Miriam Defensor Santiago, principal sponsor of the Jpepa,
admitted that the trade accord with Japan is “flawed,”
but insisted the agreement ratified by a 16-4 vote in
the Senate late Wednesday night can now “pass the test
of constitutionality.”
Santiago
confirmed in floor deliberations that she had insisted
to the executive branch that a supplemental agreement
should contain three exemptions from Jpepa, but only one
was secured. The supplemental agreement sought by
Santiago took the form of an exchange of notes between
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo and Japanese
Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura.
Meanwhile, President Arroyo underscored the importance
of the Senate ratification. At the opening ceremonies of
the Agrilink/Foodlink/Aqualink 2008 in Pasay City, she
urged exporters of food and other agricultural products
in Mindanao to take advantage of their cultural
connection to the rich Middle East market, which is not
expected to be affected by the financial crisis in the
US and other developed countries.
The
President thanked the senators who voted for the Jpepa
and said the “biggest winners” of the ratified pact
would be those in the agriculture, food and aquaculture
industry.
“We have
diversified our economy not only in terms of niche
agriproducts and aquaproducts and food products but also
in terms of markets so that the US is no longer our top
export market. That now is China. And now Japan will
open up with the Jpepa ratified....We also look at the
European market,” she said.
Commenting on the Jpepa, former National Economic and
Development Authority (Neda) chief Cayetano Paderanga,
argued that “no agreement is perfect” and said that
while “cost benefits of Jpepa are good. . . the
government must show lawmakers and the public that
they’ll invest in safeguards.”
Philippine Economic Society president Fernando Aldaba
said the ratification was necessary for the Philippines
to be on a par with its Asean neighbors, but warned
government to take advantage of the economic pact and
pursue continued economic and political reforms.
Agricultural policy and trade specialist Dr. Leonardo
Gonzales said Jpepa “will be good for the Philippines,
particularly on foreign trade” in view of the failure of
the World Trade Organization to further multilateral
trading.
De La
Salle University professor Ponciano Intal said, “Given
the current world environment, Jpepa improves the
country’s investment climate. Now, more than ever, the
Philippines needs to project good governance to improve
confidence of investors and consumers.”
The Fair
Trade Alliance (FTA) is not convinced. FTA executive
director Rene Ofreneo said Jpepa’s provisions open the
country’s waters to Japanese “factory ships. . .capable
of hauling huge volumes of fish and canning them on
board to the huge disadvantage of the local fishing
industry.”
Greenpeace Southeast Asia said the senators must have
been ashamed of themselves, having ratified the pact in
the deep of night. Greenpeace leads objectors to the
agreement, believing it opens the country to Japanese
toxic waste—one of the strongest reasons the pact had
languished in political limbo for very long before
getting the Senate’s seal of approval.
On the
other hand, independent think tank Ibon Foundation said
Jpepa will only make the country more vulnerable to
economic shocks. Ibon research chief Sonny Africa said
bilateral deals like JPEPA enable beleaguered countries
like Japan to pass their crisis to other economies
through more liberalization.
The
treaty becomes more critical for Japan, said the
independent think tank, with “the emerging scenario of a
US economic slowdown, financial disorder, soaring energy
and food prices” that only make Japan’s situation “more
urgent.”
Rep.
Lorenzo “Erin” R. Tańada III of Quezon, vice chairman of
the House Special Committee on Globalization, said,
“While I salute the four senators who dissented, it
seems that the others turned a blind eye not only to the
inherent infirmities of the treaty but all the utter
uselessness of the so-called Exchange of Notes between
Foreign Affairs Minister Koumura and DFA Secretary
Romulo.”
For the
administration, Senior Trade Undersecretary Thomas
Aquino said ratification “came in a timely manner, as it
can now serve as an economic buffer for the country in
the face of the financial turmoil in the United
States—the Philippines’s top market.”
He
claimed the Jpepa will result in the entry of P350
billion in fresh Japanese capital over a 4-year period,
this figure to be on top of the investments that would
enter without the deal in place. (B. Fernandez, C.
Ordinario, M. Gonzalez, J. Mayuga, J.A. Ng, M. de Leon)
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