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PHILIPPINE Trade officials have urged the Senate to
immediately ratify the Japan-Philippines Economic
Partnership Agreement (Jpepa) to ensure that local
exporters remain competitive against exporters in other
countries in Southeast Asia that now have an existing
free-trade agreement (FTA) with Tokyo.
Edgardo
Abon, chairman of the Tariff Commission (TC), noted that
the Japanese market could soon be crowded as Vietnam is
now currently negotiating an FTA with Tokyo.
“It’s
better to have a deal with Japan than to have no deal at
all,” said Abon at an interagency roundtable discussion
on bureaucratic implications of the Jpepa in
Makati City
recently.
In a
separate development, however, a fisherfolk group
opposing Jpepa said the trade deal has an overt,
insidious implication: a side deal allows Japanese
“factory ships” to exploit at will the Philippines’ rich
tuna fishing waters to make up for the declining catch
in other overexploited areas.
Pamalakaya said the side deal, if allowed, would “wipe
out” the P9-billion local tuna industry.
The
government has not yet addressed this fresh issue. But
Trade officials note that as an exporter of farm and
industrial products, the Philippines has a 10-percent
market share in Japan.
“We have
practically the same portfolio as that of Vietnam, and
if the Senate delays in ratifying the Jpepa, we may lose
the 10 percent [market share]. To me, the 10 percent is
better than none,” said Abon.
Besides
increased trade, the Trade department reiterated that an
FTA with Japan would mean more opportunities for skilled
workers and investments for the Philippines. The
Philippines considers Japan as its second-largest source
of foreign direct investments.
On the
controversial issue of possible dumping of toxic waste,
Trade Undersecretary Thomas Aquino reiterated that an
exchange of diplomatic notes reconfirms that toxic waste
will not be exported to the Philippines.
Erlinda
Medalla, research fellow at the government think tank
Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS),
said in a presentation that tariffs are not the only
barriers to ensuring the nonentry of waste and scraps
into the country.
In an
earlier statement at the PIDS web site, PIDS research
associate Ms. Rafaelita Aldaba, Medalla and PIDS
President Dr. Josef Yap noted that both the Philippines
and Japan are signatories to the Basel Convention on the
Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes.
“In
addition, the Jpepa has sufficient provisions to protect
the environment and prevent any illegal trade of toxic
waste,” they said.
PIDS
pointed out that in the FTAs signed by Japan with
Singapore and Malaysia, the tariffs on ash, residues,
waste pharmaceuticals, municipal waste, sewage sludge,
clinical wastes and other waste products have also been
eliminated.
“The
real issue here is how to strengthen our technical and
regulatory capacity to manage hazardous waste and
effectively implement import controls. Due to the
absence of reliable recyclers in the country, Japanese
firms export hazardous waste like copper sludge and
printed circuit boards for recycling in Japan,” said the
PIDS statement.
Through
Jpepa’s environment-cooperation initiatives, however,
the Philippines can respond to these issues by designing
technology-transfer programs to manage hazardous waste
along with capability-building programs to improve the
capacity of Philippine regulators to implement
environmental laws.
“With
Jpepa as well, closer coordination among the customs and
environment people between Japan and the Philippines to
effectively regulate and prevent illegal waste trade
could also be pursued,” said PIDS.
Still,
activists opposing the controversial trade pact have a
new beef with it: they say it will allow the entry not
only of Japanese fishing vessels into the country, but
also Japanese factory ships that could produce 50,000
metric tons of frozen tuna a year
The
fisherfolk group Pambasang Lakas ng Kilusang
Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said its study
showed 50,000 metric tons of frozen tuna a year is
equivalent to $242.5 million in gross profits, which big
Japanese fishing companies will take away from the
country’s already depleted fishing grounds.
According to Pamalakaya, a single-sized 3,000-metric ton
Japanese factory ship, accompanied by support purse
seiners, can produce a minimum of 150 metric tons of
frozen tuna per day once Japanese factory ships are
allowed to fish in Philippine waters, including the
country’s exclusive economic Jpepa.
Pamalakaya national chairman Fernando Hicap said a
Japanese factory ship capable of producing 50,000 metric
tons of tuna could earn as much as $250 million.
According to Hicap, Japanese commercial fishing vessels
will earn $32.5 million on skip jack, which is 65
percent of the 50,000 metric tons multiplied by the
prevailing landed price in Japan of $1,000 per metric
ton; and $210 million for tuna, which is 35 percent of
the 50,000-metric-ton-per-year catch multiplied by 80
percent meat yield times 1,000 kilograms at $15 per kilogram.
“In
normal fishing operations, the proportion of skipjack to
tuna would be around 65 percent and 35 percent,
respectively. The catch of blue marlin or blue fin tuna
is not factored because it is only of minimal proportion
compared to skipjack and tuna, although it enjoys a
higher price compared to skip jack and regular tuna,”
Hicap said.
The
militant leader said if a Japanese commercial fishing
company deploys four factory ships to fish in Philippine
waters, the combined catch would be 200,000 metric tons
and the combined gross earnings would be $970 million or
roughly P43.65 billion, which is way above the
P125-million fertilizer grant that the Japanese
government gave marginalized farmers and fishermen
across the country. The fertilizer grant was announced
last week.
“The
Japanese transnational fishing companies stand to gain
more than P10 billion every year per factory ship from
exploiting the country’s territorial waters in their
anarchic and uncontrollable search for our tunas. This
is in exchange for the fertilizer grant and other cheap
forms of freebies from the second world exploiting
economy. This is terrible and unjustifiable,” Hicap
lamented.
Hicap
said the fishing aspect of Jpepa was meant for the
benefit and survival of Japan’s commercial fishing
industry at the expense of the country’s local tuna
producers and small fishermen in the relatively backward
local tuna industry.
Pamalakaya said with skyrocketing tuna prices in Japan
due to reported overexploitation in the Atlantic,
Central Pacific and Indian oceans, commercial fishing
has become more lucrative and highly profitable.
The
group said
Japan
under Jpepa is targeting rich tuna fishing waters,
specifically the Philippines Sea which runs from Batanes
to Davao, the Celebes/Sulu Sea and the South China Sea.
These are regularly poached by Taiwan, China, Indonesia
and Vietnam for their rich tuna resources and other
high-value marine products.
Pamalakaya said the P 9-billion tuna industry will be
wiped out under Jpepa and would cause job displacement
of over 180,000 tuna workers and tuna fishermen in the
country. “The local tuna producers, the tuna workers and
the tuna fishermen would be left at the mercy of Japan
commercial tuna fishing corporations. This is very
unfair.” (With J. Mayuga) |
