Senator Francis "Chiz" Escudero on Monday, February 13, urged the Marcos government to consider coming up with a counter measure that will cushion the impact of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) before pressing for its ratification.
The veteran legislator proposed that the administration, package a companion measure that will help Philippine agriculture take
advantage of RCEP’s benefits and cushion its harm.
He said that even though the administration touted RCEP as the “world’s biggest free trade deal," it could, however, make the Filipino farmers the biggest losers if the agreement would overpromise but underdeliver like similar laws and treaties in the past.
Escudero warned that RCEP could end up for farmers as another Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) or a World Trade Organization (WTO) treaty. The potential of these two treaties, he noted, were not maximized and drawbacks were not contained.
While admitting that the free trade deal binding 15 countries would make winners out of some Philippine industries, the senator said "it is wrong to market it as some sort of miracle fertilizer that will make Philippine agriculture
bloom.”
Citing the Philippine's experience on the RTL, Escudero noted that the impact of the entry of cheaper rice would be offset by the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund which is aimed at helping farmers weather through the competition.
But even the country’s formal ascension via a Senate treaty to the WTO almost three decades ago "rode on a guarantee that an agriculture and fisheries modernization fund would follow suit as it did."
"If those agreements had accompanying measures, then why is such missing in what is claimed to be the biggest free trade deal in the world?” he pointed out.
Even the government's claims of windfall benefits the country would reap from RCEP is no guarantee as Escudero warned that "table top projections" is different on the farm level.
He also said the spin that RCEP is the “red carpet" to big markets such as a China, Japan, Australia and ASEAN countries "is not that simple."
“Trade is a two-way street. In their eyes, we are a large customer base of 110 million. So it is actually they who are salivating at the
prospects of selling their products here with ease,” he said.
Another assurance from the government that Escudero questioned is the claim that major Philippine farm produce are excluded from tariff concessions, meaning cuts or abolition.
“The big picture is 1,438 agriculture tariff lines, or about 88 % of total are for elimination, 126 (7%) are for reduction, and 154 (9%) are
excluded,” Escudero said.
He also noted that the 154 protected products are suffering from low production volume.
“There is nothing in RCEP that can solve this,
contrary to the claim that it will result in food security,” he said.
Whether or not the Philippines will join the RCEP, he said the government should be investing more funds into agriculture to arrest declining
production, tame expensive inputs and improve farmer incomes.
“The best trade deal for farmers is not those that have fancy acronyms but one that would result in farm-level improvements—from new irrigation to good but affordable seeds and fertilizers,” he stressed.