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Statement on the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA )
by Center for Migrant Advocacy
Saturday, Nov. 04, 2006 at 3:18 AM
The Arroyo government is desperately seeking jobs to address the country's unemployment and underemployment problems. In the case of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), the government will not only export Filipino nurses and caregivers to Japan. It will also come at the cost of allowing the entry of toxic and hazardous waste from Japan.
The Center for Migrant Advocacy joins the ranks of environmentalists and nationalist trade advocates in calling on the Philippine Senate to reject the JPEPA when it is transmitted to Congress for ratification. The JPEPA was signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi last September 9 in Helsinki as a side negotiation during the Asia-Europe Meeting.
Trade experts assess the agreement, which covers 11,300 tariff lines or commodities -- including toxic waste like incinerator ash and health care discards-- as a megatreaty that could be a precedent for future bilateral agreements. It will be the first bilateral trade accord since the 1946 parity agreement with the United States.
This is the first time that a bilateral trade and investment agreement includes and encourages trade in hazardous waste. It clearly shows the desperation of the Arroyo government to generate jobs at any cost and raise needed foreign revenues. The government's much ballyhooed economic growth has failed to raise jobs for the growing army of the unemployed and under-employed.
Despite the presence of Philippine laws that ban the importation and transport of toxic and hazardous waste, the country has been unsuccessful in disposing and treating at least 2.5 million tons of locally-generated hazardous waste every year.
The waste covered by the agreement, dubbed by the government as "recyclable materials which are legally traded goods, includes articles that can no longer perform their original purpose...nor are capable of being restored or repaired and fit only for disposal or for the recovery of parts or raw materials". These cover 141 items that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said are "environmentally sensitive products deemed potentially hazardous to health and the environment if not handled properly." It includes the highly toxic incinerator ash. This is banned by the Basel Convention, to which the Philippines and Japan are signatories.
We reiterate our rejection of JPEPA. It only adds to the long list of uneven treaties, which successive Philippine governments have entered at the expense of our dignity as a nation.
www.pinoy-abroad.net
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