BusinessWorld | By Augusto R. Bundang | October 17, 2003
I could not but be pleased by the gallant stand we took during the last World Trade Organization summit held in Cancun, Mexico. It was, I suppose, the most relevant position we have taken so far in the area of multilateral trade talks - that of not giving in to the dictates of the wealthy nations. Mind you, let it be put on record that we did not just follow the sentiments of many of the discontented developing countries but acted as one of the leading players of the G-22 bloc of developing countries which called for the lowering of farm subsidies of rich countries and greater market accessibility for their produce. Such a feat for a nation so used to mimicking the postures of Uncle Sam.
But after flattering ourselves, realizing that we can, in fact, turn up our nose against those who wish to take advantage of our cordiality and talk up the cause of our people, what is left for us to do thereafter? Well, Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo, Jr. may have well summed it up when he said: "... the Philippines has already paid the price of unbridled free trade. It is now the turn of the few who are rich to make sacrifices."
Yes, unbridled free trade. Decades of espousing blind and out and out trade liberalization dating as far back as the time of the Macapagal administration in the 1960s, have brought us nowhere but at the backseat in the race for genuine development. Those who argue that the root cause of our economic decline is the economic protectionism of the past are either downright naive or hideous tellers of tales.
The past governments' programs of decontrol and dependence on agriculture rather than industrialization, as well as their reliance on the IMF and the World Bank for loans in exchange for a freer Philippine market made us a garden economy and a dumping ground of imported cheap goods. We have become a country that thrives on consumption and importation but not on production and productivity. The price we have paid for our past governments' foibles has become so high that it would be impossible to bring us back to where we were before as next to Japan in terms of economic progress in Asia.
Finally, after allowing the wealthy countries to exploit our complacency, if not stupidity, and now finding strength in numbers alongside the other developing countries, we have discerned that the existing world economic order cannot be permitted to proceed unabated. The developing countries should not be marginalized while the developed countries continue to live in luxury. The world trading system must be questioned and ultimately changed to give the poor nations the opportunity to improve and the rich nations the time to share and sacrifice more for the sake of international comity and everyone's survival.
There should always be a limit to anything a country does, a reason and sense of responsibility to every right or duty it claims. No country should enrich itself at the expense of others. No country should accumulate more than it needs while others are left with nothing to enjoy and endure. The playing field must be leveled, the trade must be fair.
So what do we do now? We hold on tight to the economic direction we now seem to be focusing and put our act together. We modernize both our industries and agriculture, bring back import-substitution programs, adhere to selective liberalization, especially in the region, and push no end for fair trade to correct the imbalances in the WTO agreements.
The Catholic Church recently made a pronouncement that it will no longer support a particular candidate this coming presidential elections but will simply provide guidelines as to what qualities the people should look for in a presidential candidate. I can only hope that in this time of reckoning, knowledge of and partiality to a nationalist economic framework should be a quality the Church will ask its flock to search for.BusinessWorld:
