Development Denied:
JPEPA within AJCEPA
IBON Foundation
December 8, 2009
The Philippines (2008)
 Population of 91 million
 2nd largest in Southeast Asia
 13th largest in the world
 GNP (nominal) – $185.5 B
 GDP (PPP) – $317.5 B
 5th largest in Southeast Asia
 38th in the world
 GDP (PPP) per capita – $3,300
 163rd in the world
Background
 AJCEPA
 signed - April 2008
 entered into force - December 2008
 implemented by Japan and seven ASEAN
countries: Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei,
Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand
 JPEPA
 signed - September 2006
 entered into force - December 2008.
Policy context of talks (1)
1. Strong bias for market-based foreign
capital-driven and -defined
‘development’
 Vigorously implemented since 1980s,
now arguably among most formally open
countries in region
 Yet unfavorable outcomes
 Industrial & agricultural decline
 Record joblessness, rising poverty
Policy context of talks (2)
2. As a result, Philippine economy now
has elements predisposing policy to
further liberalization
 Marked increase in presence of foreign
capital with major export interests
 Migration & remittances (i.e., cheap
labor export) a major prop of the
economy
 Local industrial capital greatly
diminished
Philippines vis-à-vis
JPEPA/AJCEPA (1)
 FTA strategy not underpinned by any
coherent policy of domestic
agricultural & industrial development
 Even before JPEPA/AJCEPA, Japan &
Philippines in general already quite
open to each other
 JPEPA more comprehensive and
substantial of the two deals (“WTO+”)
Philippines vis-à-vis
JPEPA/AJCEPA (2)
 JPEPA
 concrete commitments in goods, services,
investments, and movement of natural persons
 provisions for further action in intellectual
property, government procurement, competition
policy, dispute settlement
 AJCEPA




concrete commitments only in goods
provisions for further action in other areas
explicitly recognizes SDT and flexibility for LDCs
has chapters on SPS and on standards
Towards inclusive trade policies?
 Clear what advanced economies want from
the ASEAN countries –
 Yet less clear what kind of mutually beneficial
integration ASEAN countries can have with each
other doesn’t just put them in a self-destructive
race-to-the-bottom
 Basic problem in the Philippines: retrograde
political leadership opposed to alternative
policies –
 How to build democratic momentum to expand
what is politically possible, and developmentally
urgent, in the socioeconomic realm?
Salamat po