The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has committed to the Senate a “restatement” of what the government will do to support farming communities under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as it seeks the ratification of the deal.
DTI Secretary Alfredo Pascual said following the sponsorship by Senate President Miguel Zubiri, he expects the ratification of the RCEP to happen “very soon.”
Pascual, who attended the plenary proceedings for the Senate concurrence to the ratification of RCEP agreement on Wednesday afternoon, said Zubiri and Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda sponsored RCEP for approval and concurrence.
Pascual in a televised interview said joining RCEP, and even the World Trade Organization (WTO) “are not magic remedies or magic cure” to the agriculture sector.
“It doesn’t mean that after we’ve signed this agreement, everything will fall into place. We have to exert effort, we need to implement the programs to improve the productivity of our farms, so that they will be competitive… Farm products are not going to be affected by changes in tariffs. But yet, we still have to improve our farm productivity, with or without RCEP with or without WTO to improve the economic condition of our farmers,” Pascual said.
Without giving details, Pascual said that restatement sums up what the farmer groups, whom he had separate meetings, are clamoring, one of which is to control smuggling.
“That has nothing to do with RCEP, nothing to do with WTO (but) is an issue that has made our farm produce uncompetitive,” Pascual said in a televised interview.
Pascual also said another approach is to have a buffer so the “government can flood the market with imported commodity.”
Another strategy, he said, is to connect the farmers directly with the institutional buyers and have them get organized to have bargaining power when it comes to to the buyers of their produce.
Pascual reiterated RCEP will have a big impact on the country’s industrialization and trade.
He said of the 15 countries, 14, excluding the Philippines, have deposited their instrument of ratification.
“We are trailing behind again,” he added.
Meanwhile, Sen. Imee Marcos yesterday said RCEP will do good to the economy “but it will ravage the countryside and kill our farmers.”
“Am quantifying gains in electronics and garments versus agricultural damage from RCEP. Really a lot to gain economically, but it will ravage the countryside and kill our farmers,” Marcos said who made the remark a day after 16 senators signed a resolution concurring the Senate in the ratification of RCEP.
Marcos was one of the eight senators who did not sign the resolution.
She said a lot can be done by the government to help local farmers be competitive but nothing has been done to date.
“Decades have passed since the WTO (agreement in) 1994 but nothing has been done with the several programs promised to farmers,” she added.
Sen. Christopher Go, who was also one of the lawmakers who did not sign the resolution, said he is still “making a thorough and careful study of the pros and cons” of RCEP.
“My main concern at this time is how the Philippines must strike a careful balance between opening our industries to the demands of the regional economy and protecting our local producers. I support moves to strengthen our economy and relationship with other countries but we (have to) make sure it will benefit the ordinary Filipino and not neglect lowly farmers,” Go said.
