With the Senate’s decision on whether or not the Philippines should join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in the news once again, members of the agriculture sector gathered to express their concern about its effects on the industry should the country decide to take part in the trade agreement.
Janel Geconcillo of Pambansang Koalisyon ng Kababaihan sa Kanayunan read the group’s statement. The group pointed out that despite agriculture providing 25 percent of the country’s jobs and 50 percent of Filipinos depending directly or indirectly on the sector, most of the poor still remain in rural areas.
Many practitioners are wary of entering another trade agreement without proper safeguards to ensure that the Philippines’ agriculture industry does not suffer when tariffs for many products are lifted, given its penchant for leaning on importation instead of bolstering local agriculture when food supplies dwindle, especially since “RCEP will eliminate tariffs of of our industrial tariff lines.”
The statement further pointed out that, “proponents of RCEP had one year to engage the agrifisher stakeholders people to attain a mutual understanding on why our commitments under WTO and past have not worked for us. Yet, they made no serious effort to dialogue… to avoid past mistakes and to achieve real progress.”