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War against Japan-RP trade pact to go oversea
RP activists to petition Japanese diet for JPEPA rejection

Leaders of the leftwing fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Saturday said they would petition the National Diet of Japan to reject the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).

“ The fight against JPEPA will be challenged not only here in the Philippines, but also in Japan, the imperialist master and the principal author of the one-sided agreement,” said Pamalakaya information officer Gerry Albert Corpuz in a press statement.

The Japanese Diet, the lawmaking body in Japan is consist of the House of Representatives with 480 members since 1996 and House of Councilors with 242 members.

Corpuz revealed that a petition letter addressed to all members of the Japanese Diet is being drafted right now by the 30 national council members of Pamalakaya and would be sent to the presiding officer of the Japanese Diet on or before the end of this month.

He said they would furnish the Japanese Embassy in Manila, the Philippine Senate and the Japanese officials to the forthcoming Asean meeting on December 10-14 in Cebu City, copies of Pamalakaya’s petition urging Japan’s highest policy making body to junk JPEPA.

“ The war against JPEPA should be brought to the attention of the Japanese people in the name of their people and our people’s collective and national interest,” Corpuz added.

The group’s information officer said aside from dumping their toxic wastes and aggressive search for yellow fin and skipjack tunas in the Philippines, Japan is planning to dump their surplus cars equal to the units their local companies produced in the country.

Corpuz said Japan will most likely export to the Philippines 221, 450 units of passenger cars per year, 145,950 commercial vehicle cars per year and 462,100 units of motorcycles per year, once the tariff on imported cars is eliminated under JPEPA.

Corpuz said the Philippine motor vehicle industry dominated by Japanese automobile manufacturers will take an aggressive importation of Japanese spare parts for the local assemblies of Philippine-made Japanese cars to further flood the shrinking car market in the country.

“ This is the mother of all irony. The Philippine government will be preoccupied in selling Japanese cars in the country, instead of attending to the basic needs and welfare of the 86 million Filipino people,” he said.

Corpuz said Japanese car companies in the Philippines like Toyota Motors Phils. Inc., Honda Cars Phils. Inc., Mitsubishi Motors Phils Corp., Nissan Motors Phils. Inc., Isuzu Motors and Honda Phils. will take charge in mass flooding the country with Japanese cars all over the country.

Earlier, Pamalakaya said under JPEPA, the Japanese government will send its big commercial fishing vessels to the country’s most productive fishing grounds in search for yellowfin tuna and skip jack instead of importing it directly from the Philippines under the controversial trade pact between the two countries.

The group said JPEPA will allow Japanese transnational fishing companies to fish in Sulu, Moro Gulf and waters extending to Celebes Sea, the country’s marine waters, which are known rich in yellowfin tuna and skip jack tuna “deposits”.

“The Japanese monopolies in tuna industry know that 55 percent of the country’s yellowfin tuna and skipjack are found in the waters of Mindanao. They can send their 8,000-ton fishing fleets there to harvest our tuna under the banner of JPEPA. This is the implication of this one-sided agreement,” Pamalakaya said.

posted by: GerryCorpuz at 06:31 | link | comments (3) |

Comments:

#1  17 November 2006 - 07:42

 

I agree with your analysis on JPEPA as to its effects on the fishing industry of the Philippines, particularly tuna fishing.

I worked in a company that will be severely affected by JPEPA likewise because of the imprudent granting by Phil government to Japanese steel imports by giving it a "tafiff quota and preferential treatment" in favor of Japan with aggregate quantity of 175,000 MT, 187,500 and 200,000 MT on the first, second and third year from effectivity of JPEPA. Our country will be flooded certainly by second class steel from Japan which would ultimately cause massive loss of employment/retrenchments to workers of steel plants who will face closure as a result of such dumping.

Allow me to expound further the effects of JPEPA based on my own analysis and readings with respect to our fishermen and the fishing industry.

Under Article 28, Chapter 3 of JPEPA governing rules of origin, it specifically allows "factory ships" to virtually fish limitless on the waters of the parties in JPEPA. This provision would not certainly apply to Philippine fishing companies because we do not have factory ships in the first place and Japan is fully aware of it. As you will note, Japan's tuna fishing has weakened because the areas they been fishing (Central Pacific, Indian Ocean and Atlantic) has been overfished and costs them a lot due to distance unlike in a situation would have access in Philippine waters.

In other words, the Philippine govt, thoughlessly or thru incompetence, would allow Japan highly advanced fishing fleets to fish not only in the Mindanao or Celebes Sea, but also in all areas or parts of the Philippines' 200 mile exclusive economic zones (North, West, East and South of the Phils) where there are tunas.

The sad part of it is that the fish/tunas caught by Japanese fishing fleets/factory ships in Philippine EEZs will be considered as if of Japan origin; thus, it will not be taxed in the Phils or to any tariffs when brough back to Japan. Our BFAR people would not know of course how many tonnages were caught by Japanese fishing fleets in this case. The worst part is that the tunas caught by Philippine fishermen or companies will be differently treated because it will be subject to tariff rates when exported to Japan and with quota so very small considering Japan's appetite for tuna. In effect, with JPEPA Japanese fishing fleets/factory ships would have their glory days back in the Phil EEZs and gobble up any tunas they could catch. After two years of JPEPA, not only our fisherman would have nothing to catch tuna but also our tuna fishing industry will be virtually reduced to ashes, so to speak.

Even then, if we allow Japan's fishing fleets/factory ships to rape whatever marine resouces we still have, it is not farfetched to see that our marine fisheries will be severely depleted, a resources that can be compared to gold in the future once the marine resources in other countries will be severly depleted.

Also, our tuna fishing industry will be immediately affected if we allow Japan's fishing fleets/factory ships in the Phil seas because we cannot compete with them because they control the buyers, they can dictate the price, and even they could find a way to prevent our domestic tuna fishing from exporting to Japan.

I hope you would appreciate my comments.

Jomi

esaman02@yahoo.com

as we should consider that

reach its oveWe should also

With JPEPA

Anonymous

#2  17 November 2006 - 07:43

 

I agree with your analysis on JPEPA as to its effects on the fishing industry of the Philippines, particularly tuna fishing.

I worked in a company that will be severely affected by JPEPA likewise because of the imprudent granting by Phil government to Japanese steel imports by giving it a "tafiff quota and preferential treatment" in favor of Japan with aggregate quantity of 175,000 MT, 187,500 and 200,000 MT on the first, second and third year from effectivity of JPEPA. Our country will be flooded certainly by second class steel from Japan which would ultimately cause massive loss of employment/retrenchments to workers of steel plants who will face closure as a result of such dumping.

Allow me to expound further the effects of JPEPA based on my own analysis and readings with respect to our fishermen and the fishing industry.

Under Article 28, Chapter 3 of JPEPA governing rules of origin, it specifically allows "factory ships" to virtually fish limitless on the waters of the parties in JPEPA. This provision would not certainly apply to Philippine fishing companies because we do not have factory ships in the first place and Japan is fully aware of it. As you will note, Japan's tuna fishing has weakened because the areas they been fishing (Central Pacific, Indian Ocean and Atlantic) has been overfished and costs them a lot due to distance unlike in a situation would have access in Philippine waters.

In other words, the Philippine govt, thoughlessly or thru incompetence, would allow Japan highly advanced fishing fleets to fish not only in the Mindanao or Celebes Sea, but also in all areas or parts of the Philippines' 200 mile exclusive economic zones (North, West, East and South of the Phils) where there are tunas.

The sad part of it is that the fish/tunas caught by Japanese fishing fleets/factory ships in Philippine EEZs will be considered as if of Japan origin; thus, it will not be taxed in the Phils or to any tariffs when brough back to Japan. Our BFAR people would not know of course how many tonnages were caught by Japanese fishing fleets in this case. The worst part is that the tunas caught by Philippine fishermen or companies will be differently treated because it will be subject to tariff rates when exported to Japan and with quota so very small considering Japan's appetite for tuna. In effect, with JPEPA Japanese fishing fleets/factory ships would have their glory days back in the Phil EEZs and gobble up any tunas they could catch. After two years of JPEPA, not only our fisherman would have nothing to catch tuna but also our tuna fishing industry will be virtually reduced to ashes, so to speak.

Even then, if we allow Japan's fishing fleets/factory ships to rape whatever marine resouces we still have, it is not farfetched to see that our marine fisheries will be severely depleted, a resources that can be compared to gold in the future once the marine resources in other countries will be severly depleted.

Also, our tuna fishing industry will be immediately affected if we allow Japan's fishing fleets/factory ships in the Phil seas because we cannot compete with them because they control the buyers, they can dictate the price, and even they could find a way to prevent our domestic tuna fishing from exporting to Japan.

I hope you would appreciate my comments.

Jomi

esaman02@yahoo.com

Anonymous

#3  18 November 2006 - 07:31

 

thank you for that wonderful comment and great contribution. I would use your data for our future press release on JPEPA

GerryCorpuz

Comments: