Do Not Trade Away Our Rights: WTO negotiations further eroding workers' welfare

The Philippine government is failing in its target of creating more jobs because its economic policies are misaligned from the interests of the majority of Filipinos. Upon the prodding of neoliberals like GMA who subscribe to the false promises of "free" trade through deregulation and liberalization, the country drastically lowered tariff levels on a whole range of products without careful study of its repercussions.

The effect has been the entry of cheap imported products, which may have had short-term gains for consumers, but had proved poverty-inducing in the end, because as more workers lost their fragile jobs, more families ended up below the poverty line, and now contribute to an already distressed economy hard pressed by political turmoil caused by the very same people eroding further our economy.

The Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL) again calls attention to the dire consequences awaiting the country's economy if the government rushes headlong into the deceptive text of negotiations for the Non-Agricultural Products Market Access (NAMA) agreement from the Doha round of WTO negotiations.

The NAMA covers just about everything that does not fall under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture: from raw materials to manufactured products, minerals, lumber and notably fish and fish products. The demand of the NAMA agreement is for the eventual elimination of tariffs on all these products to allow for the entry of foreign products into the Philippines, to the detriment of workers everywhere, from shoe workers in Marikina to steel workers in Calabarzon, to tuna fisherfolks in General Santos City. For a country that hasn't even industrialized, we cannot afford to abandon our industry lines without a fight! In short, it will put millions of workers out into the streets with an anger which this illegal administration will not be able to contain!

The GATS, on the other hand, centers on services, threatening to open up vital areas, such as education, health and utilities, to the profiteering of dubious multinational corporations out to make a quick profit at the expense of our people. The only reason why these services are being targetted under the GATS is because these are the most lucrative at present. But as in the case of the MWSS privatization, this will not result into an efficient nor cheaper service.

In a country where universal access is a right that hasn''t even been realized, attaching a dollar sign to such services will only further keep them away from the reach of poor households. The GATS wil also effectviely take away control of regulation from government on sensitive areas such as tourism, retail, telecommunications and broadcasting, which are sensitive due to their impact on either our natural resources or our national sovereignty.

The APL demands that these WTO agreements be brought down and that the Philippine government craft policies that will truly pave the way for national industrialization and people-centered development! These agreements are not beneficial to the general public and workers who stand to lose what few jobs are available to us locally. It will only further enrich private entities and their cohorts who are only too willing to sell out Filipino workers for an uncertain and disastrous future.