Non Agricultural Market AccessFor the past 10 years, 164 Filipino workers lose their jobs daily as a consequence of the country’s compliance to the World Trade organization’s (WTO) agenda of free trade.
“Between 1995, when the country became a member of the WTO and 1994, six firms a day closed for ‘economic reasons,’ displacing some 164 workers. Of these, 58 lost their jobs due to the closure of their firms while 106 were retrenched when their companies reduced their workforce,” reports IBON Foundation
A survey conducted by the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) among its members reiterates the unemployment statistics, showing that from 1995 to April 2001, 53 firms closed, displacing 80,319 workers while 29 firms were forced to downsize their workforce, claiming 4,019 jobs. These, according to FPI members, were caused by rapid tariff reduction and competition with imports and smuggled goods.
Further opening up the country’s economy to imported goods could destroy the already fragile manufacturing industry, since the share of domestic manufacturing to gross domestic product has fallen to 24 percent in 2004, from 28 percent in 1976.
Presently, the country’s manufacturing sector is dominated by foreign companies and is dependent on imported production inputs. As of 2004, 60 percent of the manufacturing firms among the country’s top 1000 corporations are foreign-owned transnational corporations which account for 73 percent of total gross revenues.
Meanwhile, small and medium enterprises are engaged in small-scale production for export rather than for domestic consumption, and the level of technology employed is still low. Many small-and medium-scale entrepreneurs have expressed that free trade mostly benefits the giant foreign corporations who have access to greater resources as well as market information and advanced technology.
In addition to massive retrenchment, trade liberalisation has resulted in the increase in the number of contractual workers, who are without job security and rights to collective bargaining.
Free trade also endangers what little industry the country has left. “With the country totally opened to manufactured imports under the non-agricultural market access (NAMA) negotiations in the WTO, local industrialists may simply shift from manufacturing to trading, while others may just close down operations as many of them have already done,” IBON states.
Believing that genuine industrial development is impossible under the WTO, IBON urges government negotiators to reject further liberalisation of the domestic economy at the December WTO summit in Hong Kong.
Sources:
“164 RP workers lose their jobs daily under 10 years of the WTO” by Sonny Africa as posted in November 23, 2005 at <www.libon.org>
“RP industry, fisheries endangered more under non-agri trade talks in WTO” posted in December 7, 2005 at <http://70.85.145.34/~ibon/read.php?newsid=171>
The 
we!
WiA 
Isis Resource Center holds one of the largest feminist collections of materials in the Global South. With 40 years of publication experience, Isis holds a vast collection.