Debate rages as Jpepa stirs up a hornet’s nest
Inquirer
Business/October 12, 2007
Debate rages as Jpepa stirs up a hornet’s nest
Proponents declare it a boon, critics continue to slam it
By Amy R. Remo and Ronnel W. Domingo
As the Department of Trade and Industry organized a Tokyo exhibit of products from small Philippine towns, various groups around the country have come out with guns blazing, claiming that the proposed Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement will only harm farmers in the countryside.
In separate statements, independent think tank Ibon Foundation Inc. and the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas said small farmers are “unlikely to benefit from an agri export boost under Jpepa.”
The real “gainers,” according to KMP, will be “foreign transnational companies based in the Philippines and their domestic partners.”
Ibon research head Sonny Africa pointed out that “food exports are actually only a small and diminishing share of total Philippine exports to Japan, accounting for just 7.4 percent of total exports from 2001 to 2006.”
“While food exports potentially have high local content and significant linkages to the local economy, grassroots farmers are unlikely to benefit,” said KMP chair Rafael Mariano.
The two groups explained that, due to backward production methods, “most local farms are not in a position to access the Japanese market, since their produce may not... meet strict Japanese phytosanitary and other quality standards.”
Mariano added that Philippine agriculture is grossly inequitable, with corporate agri-business cornering the benefits from production, at the expense of farmers and fisherfolk.
“Even in the case of any farms actually in a position to take advantage of the Japanese market, the gains will not really be going to the poorest peasants,” Mariano said.
Africa also said that if the Senate would ratify the Jpepa, “it would be responsible for opening the country’s agriculture resources to the exploitation by Japanese and other foreign corporations.”
Already, the government is undertaking activities to drum up exports to Japan in anticipation of the implementation of the Jpepa.
Funded through the DTI’s One-Town-One-Product project, the one-country show in Tokyo was held from Aug. 29 to Sept. 5 at the exhibition hall of the Asean Japan Center in Tokyo’s Ginza district.
Last week, trade officials said the Jpepa could ease the inflow of some P365 billion in additional investments and contribute an additional $720 million in export revenue.
