More groups seek RCEP junking

More civil society groups on Monday joined the chorus of calls to junk the recently ratified Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world’s largest trade agreement, calling it “disadvantageous and ill-fitting for the Philippine economy.”

In a unity statement issued on Monday, the People’s Summit-People’s Agenda for Change, a coalition of over 40 labor, research and agriculture groups, warned that the RCEP deal would result in wider trade deficits and lower tarriff revenues due to RCEP concessions and further liberalization.

“No amount of free trade agreements can cure the Philippine economy’s backwardness as long as majority of the people are left behind while only the super rich and big local and foreign businesses gain economically,” they said.

Among the signatories include Ibon Foundation, Asia-Pacific Research Network, activist group Bayan, peasant groups Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and Pamalakaya, as well as the All-UP Academic Employees Union.

Their statement comes days after the Senate ratified the RCEP in an 11-1 vote, supposedly to bolster cross-border trade and global value chains among member nations.

Last to sign

The Philippines was the last Asean-member nation to sign the agreement, which promised to enhance Philippine trade and foreign direct investments flow.

However, “the issues we have raised against the RCEP remain,” the group said. Among others, they cited a Global Development Policy Center study by Banga, Gallagher and Sharma, which estimated that the Philippines could lose roughly $58.2 million in tariff revenues due to RCEP concessions.

The same study estimates that the country’s trade deficit could widen by around $264 million under the RCEP.

Particular products may also face tariff elimination from one to 15 years under RCEP including feeds for primates, fish fillet, spinach, black pepper, live chicken and live swine, preserved sweet corn, chilies, onions and other capers, celery and frozen mackerel.

Meanwhile, many important agricultural products under the Philippine Exclusion List under RCEP are already import-liberalized including rice, sugar, onions, corn, legumes, garlics and coffee, they added.

This could only worsen the agriculture sector’s $8.9-billion trade deficit in 2021, its largest in history.

Silent on labor

Moreover, the RCEP is also silent on labor and environmental standards, which they said “could lead to worse labor rights violations and environmental destruction than already.”

“While the Philippines is party to some labor and environmental agreements and covenants, it should not be forgotten that the country has been cited recently as among the most dangerous for rights defenders including labor rights and environmental defenders,” they added.

They noted that the Philippines has entered into several free trade agreements already through the years but the country continues to see dismal equality rates yearly.

“The dire state of the Philippine economy requires a genuinely comprehensive transformational plan that should not include the policies of neoliberal globalization,” they said. INQ