Monday, March 10, 2008 Trade policy blasted as anti-small business By Gil Alfredo B. Severino
LEAD convenor of the Fair Trade Alliance Wigberto Tañada deplored the state of agriculture, Philippine trade regime and Philippine business in general, calling it "haphazard, aimless, going into the altar of annihilation."
Tañada who was not able to attend the two-day conference-workshop on "Transforming Philippine Agriculture through Balanced Rural Development Policies," sent his speech instead and was read by Melisa Serrano of the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations.
As read by Serrano, Tañada berated the country's global and liberal trade policy as 'haphazard and aimless' and proven to be anti-small business and ineffective.
"The opening of the economy (liberalized economy) did not automatically bring in more investments, create more jobs and modernize industry and agriculture through technology transfer," Tañada said.
He added that the country plunged itself into global competition but did not thought of "strengthening first the capacities of our industry and agriculture and give them the proper enabling environment to grow competitively."
Other than the country's un-preparedness, Tañada cited the 'prostituting' of national integrity by citing the Philippines as a party to Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) which allowed importation of second-hand vehicles, adding, "JPEPA will make our country a dumping site of their toxic wastes and allow Japanese factory ships to compete with our small fisherfolk."
Tañada also cited the RP-China Deal which will compromise 1.3 million hectares of Filipino lands to the Chinese, of which he said could have transformed and modernize Filipino farmers by teaching them land productivity through capacity-building measures and strengthening of government support services.
He stressed, "This is a clear violation of the Philippine Constitution."
Also, he further explained that with an 'aimless' trade policy, he used figures of the Federation of Philippine Industries which estimated P175 billion worth of smuggling volume owing to uncontrolled lowering of the country's tariff system.
Tañada is not against the coming in of foreign investments, he stressed, however, that, "We want them to support our development needs or in a business partnership that is mutually beneficial. Further we want them to invest in sustainable ventures such factories and transferring modern technologies."
He explained that small domestic investments must also be given equal footing in terms of fiscal incentives.
