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THE
government stands to lose, initially, over P16 billion
in waived import tax revenue under the proposed
Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa)
that Malacañang has asked the Senate to ratify.
Sen.
Gregorio Honasan warned about this loss over the
weekend, citing estimates by the Tariff Commission,
whose computations based on the old exchange rate of
$1:P55 projected the national government would be
waiving about P18.89 billion in import taxes on Japanese
goods coming to the Philippines up to 2010.
The
commission estimated that at least P4.15 billion in
forgone revenue would be waived just on the first year
of effectivity of the accord.
Adjusted
to the prevailing rate of $1:P46.85, the import tax
income loss would add up to P16.1 billion, Honasan said.
What the
Philippines is virtually doing, according to Honasan, is
foregoing an amount enough to wipe out the perennial
problem of classroom shortage in the public school
system, since P16.1 billion is enough for at least
35,000 classrooms.
“If the
government will lose this much money, then we better
make sure we can quickly recoup the losses with real
economic benefits, like increased export sales to
Japan,” he said, even as he pointed out that unlike the
anticipated economic gains that are difficult to
quantify, the import tax revenue losses are definite
once the duties on Japanese goods coming to the country
are eliminated, as provided in the accord.
This and
other similarly gloomy scenarios arising from
controversial trade provisions in the Jpepa prompted
Sen. Mar Roxas to recommend that Executive officials
coming to the Senate to push for its ratification should
be armed with “a package of safeguards” on how the
government intends to offset losses from the trade pact
with Tokyo.
He
acknowledged that like any other trade and economic
agreement the Philippines has encountered or will be
encountering, the Jpepa “comes with tradeoffs from all
parties involved,” which means “there will be both gains
and threats to local industries and the economy as a
whole” but that on the whole the Philippines should come
out ahead or on the same level of advantage as its
economic partner.
In a
statement, Roxas indicated that he and his fellow
senators would act on the treaty not solely on the basis
of the text of the 974-page accord, “but more
importantly on how the government intends to address
perceived threats or losses” from it.
“The one
and only lens that should be used here is what is our
national interest and those who come to the hearings
should be able to explain this fully,” Roxas said. For
instance, he cited the case of the automotive sector
where the Philippines allowed zero tariff concessions to
Japan under the treaty. “A Japanese carmaker could say,
‘why do I have to deal with high electricity costs and
red tape? I’ll just manufacture it in Japan and send it
here.’ That is a direct threat.”
He
suggested the administration should come to the Senate
with a package that says, ‘for these affected
industries, these are the safety nets, this is what we
intend to do to safeguard the interests of companies and
workers . . . this is the ‘homework’ of the Executive
branch. There is no excuse for showing up without these
safeguards because Jpepa has been in everyone’s radar
screen for months now.”
He said
an initial review of the Jpepa pointed to at least four
salient issues—how the treaty will affect trade in
goods, how Philippine nurses and caregivers will be
allowed entry in
Japan,
whether toxic waste will be allowed entry to the
Philippines,
and, trade, legal and treaty issues.
On trade
matters, Roxas noted that Japan remains one of the
Philippines’s top trade partners with $7.2 billion in
exports and $8 billion in imports, accounting for 17.4
percent of total Philippine exports and 16.9 percent of
total Philippine imports.
He
pointed out that most of these, or at least $5.6 billion
of exports and $4.8 billion of imports, are already
tariff-free—mostly semiconductors, electronic products
and related components.
Ambassador to Japan Domingo Siazon recently touched on
the market in Japan for local nurses and caregivers,
saying this is huge and a great opportunity for
Filipinos, but independent think-tank IBON Foundation
said the stringent requirements negate the opportunity.
Among
these stringent conditions are: These workers must be
proficient in both written and spoken Japanese and then
take the series of tests written in Japanese.
The
number of nurses and caregivers able to surmount the
considerable language, technical and cultural barriers
may at best total only a few thousand, according to IBON.
“Consenting to a patently unfair agreement like the
Jpepa further highlights the Arroyo administration’s
lack of interest in developing the domestic economy and
in generating sufficient employment. It demonstrates how
the supposed stop-gap measure of sending Filipinos
abroad to work has become the cornerstone of the
government’s development strategy,” IBON added. |
