The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) can help advance the country’s agricultural sector and will enable the Philippine economy adapt to the fast-changing global trade, according to Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda.
The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya), however, denounced the ratification of RCEP, saying the country’s local industries, including the agri-fisheries sectors will be “adversely affected.”
Legarda said she and Senate President Miguel Zubiri pitched for the creation of an oversight committee that will strictly monitor the agencies’ support programs for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and the agriculture sector. The resolution approved by the Senate took into consideration the concerns of various stakeholders and those opposed to RCEP.
The senator made the assurance that the recommendations submitted by the oppositors are part of the resolutory clauses of the resolution and that there will be government support programs in favor of farmers and fishers as well as representation of indigenous peoples, women, and other marginalized sectors. “I’m taking that big leap of faith, so to speak, so that we can go along with the other Asean nations, our neighbor Indonesia, as well as, Myanmar and Laos. Huwag naman tayong maungusan pa ng ibang bansa kung hindi tayo makasama sa RCEP na ito,” Legarda said.
“We have to move forward, and we have to move forward along with our neighboring Asean nations lest we’ll be left by the wayside.”
She noted that only 15 agricultural commodity groups corresponding to 33 tariff lines would have lower tariff rates under RCEP compared with those in some Asean+1 free trade agreements. Citing the National Economic and Development Authority, she said this is equivalent to only 1.9 percent of the 1,718 agricultural lines and 0.8 percent of the total agricultural imports.
Of these 33 tariff lines, 17 are raw materials, 8 are intermediate products, and only 8 are final goods. The remaining agricultural tariff lines will have equal, or higher rates than other Asean+1 FTAs, or are excluded from import tariff concessions under the RCEP.
“All the Asean nations have ratified RCEP, and it is to our disadvantage if we do not join RCEP because RCEP countries who are our trading partners outside of Asean will put down their tariffs for other Asean nations, who will be exporting the same produced to those countries like China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, while products from the Philippines will enter those countries with high tariffs,” Legarda said.
She also underscored the significant roles of implementing agencies and the Executive department in the improvement of the country’s agriculture sector.
“We cannot say that there is no more hope. For me, hope springs eternal. That is why we solicited the inputs of our farmers and fisherfolk. If the Department of Agriculture does not do their job in terms of eliminating smuggling and in terms of giving help to farmers who cannot access the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, life will not be better for our farmers and fisherfolk,” she said.
“Kailangan natin ang whole-of-government approach para paigtingin ang kalakal, ang agrikultura, ang pagbibigay ng pagkain sa mga taong nagbibigay ng pagkain sa ating hapag kainan.
‘A bane to fishers’
“RCEP will further flood our local market with cheap imports at the expense of our farmers and fisherfolk,” Fernando Hicap, Pamalakaya national chairperson said in a statement.
The Philippines imported almost 200,000 metric tons of round scad and other pelagic fishes from China, Vietnam, and Taiwan from 2018-2022, says Hicap. This, he noted, was done even when the RCEP was not yet put in place.
“Now that the Philippines has formally joined the RCEP, large volumes of imported agricultural products are expected to flood our country. This will threaten our local industry that has been neglected, and which will be outcompeted by imports.”
Hicap said other impacts of RCEP in the fishing sector include possible “intensified conversion projects in fishing grounds and coastal areas by Chinese investors and developers; and expansion of private aquaculture in municipal fishing grounds funded by Chinese firms for export in their country.”
“By railroading the RCEP, the Marcos administration has openly demonstrated its subservience to foreign countries, particularly to China that has been pushing the said mega free trade deal. It is very disappointing that the Marcos administration and its legislators did not even consider the ongoing usurpation of China in the West Philippine Sea before they approved the RCEP.”
Pamalakaya, an umbrella organization with local chapters across the country, maintained that policies anchored on import-liberalization should stop, insisting that local fisheries capture industry should instead be supported and strengthened by the government.
“By breaking free from foreign policies that favor powerful countries such as China can the Philippine government only effectively assert our national sovereignty.”