Japan’s EPA strategy targets East Asia
UPI Asia | January 24, 2008
Japan’s EPA strategy targets East Asia
By GERRY ALBERT CORPUZ
MANILA, Philippines, A Manila-based independent think tank, the IBON Foundation, has issued a report asserting that Japan’s controversial economic partnership agreement with the Philippine government is just one piece of Tokyo’s larger plan for an eventual comprehensive economic partnership agreement in East Asia that would expand Japan’s regional influence.
In its special report, "The Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement: Surrendering Sovereignty and Development," the foundation said the plan is reminiscent of the Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere that Japan advocated as a justification for its aggression and occupation of neighboring countries before and during World War II.
"In most essential respects regarding the economy, what was sought through invasion in the 1930s is apparently now being done through negotiation. Japan in any case already accounts for half of East Asian gross domestic product, and CEPEA is packaged in a positive way as about ’cooperation’ and ’partnership’ towards an ’efficient, mature market economy for East Asia as a whole,’" the paper asserted.
Japan hopes to sign EPAs with as many as 16 countries in East Asia, including member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations like the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos, as well as China, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India. The world’s second largest economy, next to the United States, already signed bilateral trade agreements with Singapore in 2002, Malaysia in 2005, Philippines in 2006, and Thailand, Brunei and Indonesia in 2007.
The Japanese government began negotiations for EPAs with South Korea in 2003, ASEAN as a whole in 2005, and Vietnam, India and Australia in 2007. It is currently in the preliminary study or exploratory stages of talks with China and New Zealand, and at the same time exploring a trilateral Japan-China-South Korea deal as a model for the targeted East Asia regional agreement.
According to the IBON Foundation, Japan’s intent in pursuing these EPAs is to ensure that Japanese transnational corporations will be able to compete and gain free access to the markets, labor and natural resources of the region.
Another objective, the think tank said, is to ensure that advantages and protection in the home front are maintained while at the same time consolidating and expanding Japan’s regional production base. Last but not least, Japanese EPAs with countries in East Asia will bring convenience and profit to its businesses, based on location and the availability of cheap labor and raw materials.
In the Philippines, for instance, IBON said Japan has much to gain from entering into an economic partnership with the Manila government. It said Japan, enjoying enormous economic advantage over the Philippines, would have greater leverage in profiting from the weaker country’s labor, natural resources and markets.
The think tank pointed out that Japan and the Philippines are as unequal as can be, with Japan’s gross domestic product — US$4.4 trillion in 2006 — 50 times bigger than that of the Philippines, while Japan’s per capita GDP of US$ 34,155 is 30 times larger. In trade, Japan accounted for 17 percent of the Philippine’s total trade in 2005, while Manila accounted for a mere 1.4 percent of Japan’s total trade — an imbalance that would increase once the JPEPA is ratified by the Philippine Senate.
Given this lopsided equation, Filipino activists in Manila are actively exposing and opposing the Philippine economic pact with Japan, and spearheading an East Asian campaign to stop not only JPEPA but also other Japanese EPAs in the region.
"The aggressive campaign of Japan and its corporate giants is the concern of all people in East Asia," says Pamalakaya, a fisherfolk alliance in the Philippines that is in touch with anti-Japanese EPA activists in Japan, South Korea, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, China, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.
From Jan. 11-13, Pamalakaya represented the Sri Lankan-based World Forum of Fisher People at a seminar called by Arder Bourgogne, a French peasant federation opposed to unequal trade agreements. Another conference against JPEPA and other Japanese EPAs in East Asia is scheduled for May or June this year.
In the Philippines, a top official of Pamalakaya challenged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and senators who favor the JPEPA to a debate on the economic agreement in Mendiola.
The Filipino activists in Manila are making headway in the fight against JPEPA. The same thing is taking place in Japan and in South Korea. The groups say they expect more Asians to raise their voices in collective opposition to Japan’s invasion of East Asia through one-sided and exploitative economic partnership agreements.
(Gerry Albert Corpuz is a correspondent of Bulatlat.com, an alternative Philippine online news site. He is also the head of the information department of Pamalakaya, a national federation of small fisherfolk organizations in the Philippines. His website is www.gerryalbertcorpuz.motime.com, and he can be contacted at themanager98@yahoo.com. ©Copyright Gerry Albert Corpuz.)
