Months after implementing the Asean Economic Community (AEC), local civil-society organizations remain skeptical that achieving full integration is possible in the region.
In the Asean People’s Forum 2016, Freedom from Debt Coalition President Eduardo C. Tadem said one of the major reasons is products of Asean economies are not complimentary.
With this, Tadem said, around 75 percent of the trade made by Asean countries are outside of the region.
“Asean economies are not complimentary. We compete with each other. We export the same products,” Tadem said.
He added: “How can we trade with each other if we have the same products? Of course we will go outside of the Asean because no one will buy our products in the region.”
Tadem explained that Intra-Asean trade has remained stagnant for the past 17 years or between 1995 to 2014. During this time, trade within the Asean remained at 24 percent or 25 percent annually.
This, he said, could even be overstated because of reexports, many of which come from Singapore, which is considered the smallest country in the economic bloc.
In reality, Tadem said, intra-Asean trade could only be around 15 percent and the rest of the trade could come from outside the region.
In 2015 the Philippines recorded a trade deficit of $9.203 billion in the Asean, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
PSA data showed Singapore was the country’s top trading partner among the Asean member countries with a total trade accounting for $8.806-billion, or 33-percent, share of the Asean total trade.
Exports to Singapore was worth $3.801 billion, while imports payment was valued at $5.005 billion, reflecting a trade deficit of $1.205 billion.
“Singapore ang pinaka-masigasig sa trade within Asean subalit ’yung products from Singapore hindi naman Singapore ang gumagawa, galing sa ibang bansa. Ang tawag dito, reexport. Kung himay-himayin mo ’yung exports ng Singapore, tingnan alin talaga ’yung galing sa Singapore, itong 24.1 percent ay magiging mas mababa pa, palagay ko bababa pa ito to 15 percent [Singapore trades a lot with the Asean but most of the products they trade are not from them. These are called re-exports. If the exports of Singapore are examined closely, this 24.1 percent [intra-Asean trade in 2014] would decline to about 15 percent],”
Tadem said.
Apart from having the same products, Tadem said many Asean countries have existing trade disputes with each other, mainly because of prevailing national interests and national sovereignty.
Tadem said examples of this include Malaysia’s protection of its car- and vehicle-parts industry and Indonesia’s protection of their agricultural products.
The Philippines also refuses to open up its petrochemical industry. The country is also the only one in the world that has a quantitative restriction (QR) on rice from the World Trade Organization.
“National strategies clash with Asean internal goals. Several members refuse to lower tariffs on certain products,” Tadem said.
“Maraming mga trade disputes, mga away-away tungkol sa kalakalan ang ibat-ibang mga countries [There are also many trade disputes on trade among countries],” he added.
Meanwhile, there are alternatives to Asean integration, according to Antonio A. Tujan Jr. of Ibon Foundation.
Tujan said creating a unique model for the Asean can begin with the 10-point declaration known as the Dasa Sala principles, which were drafted in the Bandung Conference of 1955.
He added these principles can be incorporated in the Latin American model of integration fused with an Asean perspective.
“The experience of Latin America and the principles forged by Bandung teaches us that another form of regionalism is also possible in our region,” Tujan said in a presentation. Cai U. Ordinario
“We have a rich stock of practice in struggles and alternatives that we can use to enrich what Bandung and Latin American models meant —and more importantly allow us to go beyond it,” he added. Cai U. Ordinario
The thrust of integration in the region, Tujan said, should be people-centered and should abandon market-led growth strategies.
The integration must focus on concerns such as food sovereignty, climate change, and respect for human and collective rights.