JPEPA
Fair Exchange
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| Fruit exports to Japan, such as pineapples, will be enjoying lower tariffs |
Philippine exports will be gaining greater access to the Japanese market after the signing of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement on 9 September. The Philippine Institute of Development Studies estimates a 2.0%–2.5% growth in gross domestic product as a result of the newly signed free-trade agreement, which is now pending ratification by the Senate. It is expected to generate about P250–300 billion in revenues in the next three years.
Under the JPEPA, about 95% of Philippine exports to Japan will be enjoying lower or zero-percent tariffs starting next year until 2010. Most of the affected goods are agricultural products, like poultry meat, prepared and processed pork meat, yellow and skipjack tuna, processed and smoked tuna, sugar molasses, muscovado, fresh and dried pineapples, Cavendish and small bananas, and other tropical vegetables. Rice and corn, however, are not covered by the tariff pact.
Aside from goods, the agreement also provides for the entry of 400 nurses and 600 caregivers from the Philippines to Japan in the next two years.
The JPEPA is certainly not without its detractors, however. When negotiations were still ongoing, the Arroyo administration was criticized for not revealing the pact’s provisions. Activists claim one of the agreement’s provisions allows Japan to dump toxic waste in Philippine waters. In addition, some sectors point to the hasty manner in which the pact was signed and the observation that Japan has not reciprocated the long list of goods that the Philippines has agreed to liberalize. Moreover, critics say the agreement will have such negative consequences as jobs displacement and price distortions in agricultural and industrial goods.
2005 Youth Survey
From Couch Potato to Mouse Potato
Filipino youths are spending less time surfing the channels and more time surfing the Net. Teens are trading in their precious TV time in favor of online interactive games, chatting, blogging, e-mail messaging, and the like. This is one of the findings of the Inter-Generation Study conducted by McCann Erickson Philippines in 2005.
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| Teens are studying harder to earn more and be able to leave the country for greener pastures abroad |
According to the study, teenagers who belong to class C and D spend an average of three hours per day browsing through the Web. While this can be partly explained by the steady rise in ownership of personal computers in Metro Manila and other regions, the democratization of Internet access with the mushrooming of Internet cafés paved the way for this phenomenon. The advertising firm, which also surveyed youths across all social classes and regions in 1992 and 2000, also found out that teens in the 2005 survey spent more time studying than the respondents in 2000. Teens nowadays spend an average of 122 minutes per day studying, compared to teens in 2000 who spent 100 minutes per day for schoolwork aside from the hours spent in school. However, the survey reveals that children nowadays study hard not for academic or scholastic pursuits but to earn more and be able to leave the country for greener pastures abroad. They are inspired by the success of overseas Filipino workers who are able to improve their families’ standard of living in the Philippines. “Raised by a culture of immediacy through technology, youth seek for jobs that promise to pay well sooner than later. That is why call center jobs are more appealing to them,” points out McCann Erickson Philippines managing director Nandy Villar. Teens today are also more worried than their counterparts in 1992 and 2000. Since they are exposed to a sea of information on the Internet, “they cannot be fooled because they know what is real. They worry about a lot of things, from pollution, to earning money for food, to growing older alone,” says Villar.
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