Transcript Health for sale: Global and national health policies

WTO, FTAs:
Instruments of
imperialist
domination
IBON
Foundation
Launching Forum of
NO DEAL! MOVEMENT AGAINST UNEQUAL AGREEMENTS
Quezon City
November 9, 2007
Philippine poverty
and backwardness
• Widespread poverty
• Worsening inequality
• Agricultural and industrial
backwardness
• Overly reliant on cheap labor
export, foreign capital- and
debt
Filipinos aspire and
struggle for development
• For:
– true agrarian reform
– genuine national industrialization
• Against:
– imperialist domination of the economy
• exploiting cheap labor, plundering natural
resources and dominating our markets
– exploitative international
economic deals
• multilateral WTO agreements
• bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs),
regional trade agreements (RTAs),
economic partnership agreements (EPAs)
• Go far beyond just “trade”  also
investment, services, competition policy,
intellectual property rights, labor, govt
procurement, dispute settlement…
(1) FTAs deny us essential
policies for development
To build domestic
economy we need:
• Trade protection
against imports  to
give local producers the
opportunity to develop
– Tariff/non-tariff barriers…
• Foreign investment
controls  to ensure
benefits from FDI
– Equity requirements,
domestic content, local
hiring, technology
transfer…
(1) FTAs deny us essential
policies for development
Policies affirmed by historical
experience:
• Used by all First World
countries when they were
developing
– Britain, France, Germany, US,
Japan… (19th century-1950s)
• Used by handful of Third
World countries which made
any sort of economic
progress
– South Korea, Taiwan,
Malaysia… (1960s-1980/90s)
• Used by Socialist countries
– Russia (1917+), China (1949+)
(2) FTAs impose policies that
have already severely
damaged the economy
• Philippines has been
actively liberalizing
trade and investment
since the 1980s/90s
– IMF-WB impositions,
WTO agreements…
• Arguably the most
liberalized country
in Southeast Asia…
and also one of its
poorest performing
(2) FTAs impose policies that
have already severely
damaged the economy
120
2,500
100
2,000
80
Exports (P billion)
Imports (P billion)
1,500
60
Exports plus Imports (% of GDP)
1,000
40
500
20
0
• Trade doubled as percentage of GDP :
– 52% (1980)  105% (2005)
% of GDP
P billion
External Trade-Orientedness, 1949-2005
3,000
• Foreign investment quadrupled as
percentage of GDP:
– 4% (1980)  14% (2005)
YET:
0
1949
1954
1959
1964
1969
1974
1979
Year
1984
1989
1994
1999
2004
• Record sustained joblessness:
– Unemplt 8% (1980)  ~11% (2001-05)
– 12 million Filipinos looking for
work/additional work (2006)  OFW export
• De-industrialization and shrinking
manufacturing
– Share in GDP: 26% (1980)23%(2005)
– Share in employment (11% 9%)
• Falling food production per capita,
rising agricultural trade deficits
JPEPA is unequal, defeatist
and destructive
1. Grossly unequal
–
–
Backward Philippines gives up much more than advanced Japan
Philippines’ deal worse than negotiated by Malaysia and Indonesia
Protected
Protected
trade products investment sectors
Japan
239 items
16 sectors
Philippines
2 items
5 sectors
Malaysia (2005)
38 items
17+ sectors
(plus Bumiputera policy)
Indonesia (2007)
835 items
40+ sectors
JPEPA is unequal, defeatist
and destructive
2. Defeatist
–
Surrenders Philippine policy sovereignty, prevents
support for Filipino producers
• National Treatment, Most-Favored-Nation (MFN)
Treatment, prohibition of “performance
requirements” on investments
– Unprecedented protection for Japanese investors.
“Investment” = FDI, portfolio investment +
intellectual property, contractual rights, tax breaks
(“taxation as expropriation”)
–
Note: JPEPA includes “Singapore Issues” already rejected at
WTO for being anti-developmental
JPEPA is unequal, defeatist
and destructive
3. Destructive
–
JPEPA drastically restricts the Philippines’ policy
options: precedent-setting vis-à-vis Japan and sets a
dangerous benchmark for other FTAs
•
–
–
Note: Handful of FTAs makes WTO virtually redundant,
where Japan + EU + US + Greater China + ASEAN
= ~90% of country’s intl trade and investment
Job losses in auto/auto parts assembly and iron/steel
sectors, fisheries… toxic waste imports…
commodification of nurses/careworkers…
+ Millions of jobs that will never be created
because of stifled domestic development
• NO Deal! stands for democratic
governance, economic sovereignty
and building the national economy
• NO Deal! supports economic
relations based on equality and
mutual benefit
• NO Deal! rejects all unequal trade
agreements which further undermine
our already devastated economy
– JPEPA, EU-ASEAN, RP-US, RPChina…
Maraming salamat!