Workers buck TRM position on resins, plastics import tariffs

Workers of the petrochemical and plastics industry yesterday called on President Arroyo to junk the recommendations of the Tariff and Related Matters cabinet committee headed by Trade and Industry Secretary Mar Roxas and Romulo Neri of the NEDA to cut tariffs on resin imports to 10 percent from the current 15 percent starting Jan. 1 next year.

"Ginang Pangulo, huwag ninyong gawing Biyernes Santo ang aming Pasko!" appealed the workers while lambasting Roxas and Neri for the TRM position. The workers have been pushing for a tariff parity of 15 percent for both petrochemical and finished plastics products imports. They warned of massive job dislocations and plant closures if imports swamp the local resin and plastics market.

In a meeting on the petrochemical issue Monday, the TRM decided to recommend to the President a reduction in the current tariff on resin imports from 15 percent to 10 percent. It also recommended the freezing of tariffs on various plastics products imports.

"The TRM recommendation demonstrates how the President is being undermined by her very own people. The bottom line issue here is that ideology has captured policy. Even if the facts and data support an adjustment in tariff, the ideologues who are wedded to unbridled trade liberalization will resist any tariff increases. They will even recommend the wrong medicine even if it will kill the patient," lawyer Ernesto Arellano, spokesperson of the Plastics Union Labor Alliance (PULA), and secretary general of the National Federation of Labor (NFL), said.

The workers said TRM’s recommendations are in complete disregard of the commitments of the President. The President is to finally decide on the TRM recommendations before the year ends.

"The struggle against the irrational and cold-hearted tariff and trade policy will only intensify. We will exhaust remedies and await the decision of the President on the TRM recommendation and we will act accordingly. Next year, we have to muster all our forces to press on for a change in policy that has only brought more deficit, increasing unemployment, and more poverty to the people," Arellano said.