ISDS Case Map
Philippines
The recently signed free trade agreement between
the Philippines and Japan may have given economic
concessions to Japan that go beyond Philippine
commitments to the World Trade Organization
(WTO), a Filipino opposition legislator today warned.
A PowerPoint file presented at the FTA Workshop in Bangkok on July 28, 2006.
The militant Filipino labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) said it fears more retrenchments and lower wages with the impending liberalization of the country's automotive and steel sectors under the recently signed Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
The free-trade agreement clinched with the Philippines on Saturday will test whether Japan is serious about opening its labor market, a change that would trade homogeneity for a more youthful workforce.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European trade chief Peter Mandelson will discuss plans Tuesday with Philippine officials for an ambitious trade agreement between the European Union and a group of Southeast Asian countries, EU officials said.
A free trade pact with Japan has given Philippine agricultural products like sugar wider access to the world's second-largest economy, an agriculture official said yesterday.
Japan will accept 400 nurses and 600 caregivers from the Philippines under the bilateral free-trade agreement signed over the weekend, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Monday.
The newly signed Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement must be scrutinized by the Philippine Senate because of apprehensions over its alleged disadvantages to the country, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said on Monday. Workers' and other groups also slammed the signing of the agreement, while a Department of Labor and Employment official said he doubted many Filipino health care workers would want to go to Japan.
Japan and the Philippines signed a free-trade pact after overcoming the thorny issue of Filipina nurses seeking work in the world's second-biggest economy.
