Lawmakers call for creation of special body to renegotiate JPEPA

MANILA, Philippines - Administration lawmakers urged yesterday President Aquino to form a multisectoral body that would review and renegotiate the provisions of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) after Japan had reportedly failed to fulfill their part of the free trade deal.

Ang Kasangga party-list Rep. Teodorico Haresco, vice chairman of the House committee on small business and entrepreneurship development, said the Philippine government must exert pressure on Japan for better terms, especially in light of news reports that other countries in the region that had similar agreements with the economic giant had superior deals.

Haresco and Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone also sought a congressional review of the JPEPA.

Out of the 1,000 Filipino nurses promised deployment to Japan, only one was hired due to stringent rules under the JPEPA. The other nurses, who were able to reach Japan, were taken in only as trainees, reports said.

“It was only a puppet show. Japan apparently does not really want more Philippine skilled labor. The Japanese seems to be more interested in getting those with Japanese ancestry in South America and one of those islands near China,” Haresco said.

“I think we must seriously review the JPEPA. I think Japan was more interested in entering into a free trade agreement with us just to bring in their goods tariff-free, that‘s all,“ he said.

He said the review was necessary and urgent because Japan did not comply with the reciprocity of the agreement.

Possibly complicating the issue is the fact that the Japanese government had changed its prime minister more than a few times since the JPEPA was implemented.

He said the Philippines cannot unilaterally suspend the implementation of the free trade pact “because of the disparity in our economies.”

“We’re kindergarten, they’re post-doctorate,” Haresco said.

Evardone said the President should form a special task force to renegotiate the JPEPA to make the terms fair to the Philippines.

“We cannot allow a lopsided implementation of the agreement,“ he said.

He filed House Resolution No. 828 calling on the President to press Japan to fulfill its commitments under the JPEPA.

He said members of the international community such as the United States and the European Union have criticized the JPEPA as containing iniquitous provisions unduly favoring Japan at the expense of the Philippines.

He said in the “trade in goods and services” chapter of the JPEPA, Japan was able to exclude 651 tariff lines, 238 of which are agricultural products, while the Philippines excluded only six tariff lines.

He said there were reports that the Philippines was not able to get a commitment from Japan to eliminate the latter’s trade-distorting subsidies, while Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand got the commitment in question.

He said recent data on the Philippines’ foregone revenues due to removal of tariffs need to be evaluated to determine the impact of JPEPA on the Philippine trade balance with Japan and the economy as a whole.

Under Article 93, JPEPA, on performance requirement, neither party can impose or enforce as a condition for investments requirements such as research and development (R&D), technology transfer and hiring and appointment of nationals as executives, managers, or board members, effectively tying the hands of and reducing the policy space available for succeeding policymakers without getting any substantial benefit in return, he said.

“Article 93, JPEPA is disadvantageous to a developing country like the Philippines since the country might be stuck in low value-added manufacturing activities, and hence, fail to move to higher value-added activities,” Evardone said.

“Despite efforts of both the government and non-government sectors to maintain the international standards demanded of professional health workers like nurses, JPEPA makes a registered Filipino nurse inferior to a Japanese nurse as the former will enter Japan not as professional nurses but as trainees. Moreover, a Filipino nurse has to undergo the rigorous nursing licensure examinations in Japan written in the Japanese language for her to obtain permanent employment,” he said.