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A GROUP
representing up to 1,000 small-scale exporters on
Thursday warned of massive closures, worker displacement
and financial losses if the government fails to help
them cope with the peso’s continuing rise against the
dollar.
The
Luzon-based exporters, which supposedly employ up to
400,000 workers, claimed at least P1.5 billion in
forgone incomes as well as P2.6 billion in monthly
employee compensation may be incurred should they shut
down because of foreign-exchange losses.
“We are
hardly coping with the peso appreciation no matter how
hard we try to control operational and labor costs. Our
products are pegged on foreign-exchange levels already
uncompetitive by delivery time,” a representative from
the home accents and Christmas decór said.
Export
sales were further affected by the refusal of buyers to
accept price adjustments in the same way they cannot
refuse orders for fear of losing their markets, they
added.
Another
exporter claimed, meanwhile, that although the easiest
way to cut costs was to reduce the workforce or shave
work schedules, that would only weigh down production
schedules considering the export business has always
been concerned with meeting deadlines.
“And
even if we are able to cut cost there is still the China
factor, which can offer as much as a 30-percent discount
on the products that we sell [in the overseas market],”
Chuqui Veneracion, executive vice president of the
Philippine Chamber of Handicraft Industries Inc., told
BusinessMirror at the sidelines of the group’s media
briefing.
In their
position paper, the exporters urged the government to
“immediately address the problem and effect an
acceptable exchange rate favorable to exporters, which
should within the band ranging from P48 to P50 to a
dollar.”
“In our
case P49 to the dollar would be a viable level,”
Veneracion said.
Also in
the exporters’ wish list was the regulation of prices of
local and foreign raw materials they use for production,
lower power rates and subsidies for their international
promotion and marketing activities, and introduction of
a dual exchange rate similar to that of Thailand.
Monetary
officials in
Bangkok
have adopted a system where there is an official
onshore—or inside Thailand—and unofficial offshore
exchange rates for the Thai baht.
“The
government is not inclined to do a lot of things, that
is why we are just asking for monetary authorities [to]
do something about the peso. . . . bring the foreign
exchange level to about six month ago,” Eduardo Zuluaga
of Azcor Lighting Systems Inc. said. |
