Civil groups have urged government to maintain its position for the reduction of agricultural subsidies of developed economies by 2013 and flexibilities on market opening and coverage for the industrial sector for developing countries.

In a position paper, the multisectoral Fair Trade Alliance (FTA) has urged the government delegation to the 7th WTO Ministerial in Geneva to stand firm on the country’s position.

On the agriculture side, FairTrade urged the Philippines not to waiver in its support to the efforts of the G20 to extract commitments from the developed countries in reducing trade-distorting subsidies in agriculture “through clear, measurable and definitive targets.

There is a target to reduce these subsidies by 2013 but up to now there is little progress in this area. Likewise, the Philippines should help maintain the G33 alliance which is pushing for flexibilities in the designation of special privileges (SPs) and special measures (SSMs) that will help poor nations cope up against import surges.

The government should also correct the simplistic approach that trade is a question of market opening. If we have less items to export and a lengthening list of imports, market opening becomes a suicidal formula, the statement said.

“But how can we have more exportables and less importables if our agriculture is poorly managed, our agricultural tariffs are way below those of other countries and the dumping and smuggling of certain imported agricultural products remain unchecked, especially in the ports outside Metro Manila? Clearly, we need a coherent and integrated approach to agricultural development,” the statement said.

On the non-agriculture market access (NAMA), FairTrade said the Philippines should be a force inside NAMA 11 demanding more flexibility on market opening and coverage under NAMA.

“Most of the proposed liberalization formulas tend to ignore the existing level of development among developing countries and “kick away the ladder” of industrial development that was used by the developed countries themselves, such as the protection for critical, strategic or infant industries suitable to developing economies,” the statement said.

In short, FairTrade has urged to be able to maintain the flexibility to develop the country’s industrial capacity.

For example, we should be able to develop our own integrated petrochemical industry, belated though this initiative may be. At the same time, our technocrats and tariff officials should help promote value-adding industrial complementarities and linkages, not foment artificial industrial divisions by passing tariff measures which pit one group of domestic producers against another group. The latter is often aggravated by the absence of an integrated industrial plan.

“Our negotiators should always remain on guard. If we remember the Singapore Ministerial Conference way back in 1996, all of a sudden the so-called “Singapore issues” came out and were put on the table some serious discussions to further liberalize the economy in the area of domestic regulation, trade facilitation and government procurement,” the statement said.