‘Open skies’ will hurt RP, says Tañada

Former Senator Wigberto Tañada, lead convenor of the Fair Trade Alliance (FTA), warned yesterday that an "open skies" policy may hurt the country’s civil aviation industry.

In a forum organized by the FTA, Tañada stressed that "any bilateral agreement must be considerate of the state of our country’s affected industries."

Tañada warned that "an all-out, abrupt and immediate ‘open skies’ will only hurt the Philippine civil aviation industry."

Tañada cited the Philippines’ experience with trade liberalization as espoused by the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Opening up the Philippine market to foreign imports, Tañada pointed out, has only led to the collapse of several local businesses and industries.

As far as Tañada is concerned, it is more to the interest of the Philippines to maintain a national carrier as a deterrent to foreign carriers who may end up controlling the local aviation industry.

Foreign carriers have been at the forefront of a campaign to convince the Philippines to accept an "open skies" policy.

An open skies policy would provide unlimited access to foreign carriers. Philippine government negotiators, Tañada suggested, should negotiate a deal that would ensure terms that would be "reciprocal, equitable and fair."

The forum was attended by top executives of local airlines, travel groups, national federation, academicians and cause-oriented groups.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) president Avelino Zapanta recalled that during the 1944 Chicago Convention for the United Nations where the open skies policy was first proposed by the US, "close to a hundred nations saw the perils of open skies to their own aviation industries."

Now, Zapanta warned, "the US wants to revive the concept through socalled bilateral negotiations."

There is supposedly a proposal from the US to resume bilateral negotiaitons on the open skies policy next month.