Government urged to undo trade blunder

The multisectoral Fair Trade Alliance (FTA), a broad coalition pushing for trade and economic reforms, urged government to ensure a level playing field for Philippine industry in the ongoing trade and tariff policy review.

Wigberto Tañada, FTA lead convenor, said that the Philippine government should take advantage of this opportunity to correct its previous haphazard trade liberalization and tariff policies.

Tañada said the Constitution clearly mandates a pro-Filipino stance in trade policies. "The only problem is that we chose to hastily expose our industries to the goods of the world eagerly looking for vulnerable markets, thinking that we are favoring consumers by making goods cheap and abundant."

He called on the government to take the initiative and set things right, explaining "all this would also be within the WTO rules and practice."

Tañada recalled the time when the era of liberalization was launched in the late ’80s, he fought hard against it because it would definitely harm all local industries, considering their level of development and competitiveness.

Tañada further recalled the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) in the Tañada v. Angara case where the SC proclaimed that the WTO recognized the different conditions of developing countries and, thus had set provisions for "safety nets" or safeguard measures to provide temporary protection to their industries suffering injury. "Now even these safety nets and safeguards have become a contentious issue whereby local industries must face extreme difficulties to be able to avail of them," the FTA leader said.

"Besides, the Philippines can adjust tariffs upwards without violating our commitments under the WTO agreement," he said, referring to the country’s maximum tariff ceilings bound under the WTO.

Tañada expressed hopes the government will undertake corrective measures by stopping further liberalization and reorienting current trade policies to provide more protection to agriculture and industry.

Local manufacturers face common problems of higher input costs and are hard put to continue improving operations through measures of debt restructuring, research on alternative fuels and improved marketing techniques without the safety nets and the safeguard tariffs earlier provided by government.