MEDIA RELEASE / 27
January 2017
#114 Timog Ave. Quezon City/ 9276986/ www.ibon.org
Trump
presidency bodes ill for smaller nations like PH
America’s
inauguration of its 45th President sent jitters across the world as
to the future of foreign policies, said research group IBON. For the Philippines,
whose economy has been influenced largely by the US for many decades, this is
an opportune time to rethink its economic policies and its relations not only with
the superpower but with other nations that have the same interests in the
Philippines as the US, IBON said.
Controversial
Republican standard-bearer Donald Trump with campaign motto ‘make America great
again’ defeated Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the US November polls. According
to IBON, Trump's inaugural themes such
as ‘America first’, ‘buy America, hire America', and ‘American carnage ends now’,
and Trans Pacific Partnership pullout in preference of bilateral deals hint a
more aggressive US in terms of engaging with other nations. This, as the US
economy remains a struggling one despite recent claims of recovery.
Though reportedly
recovering from 2009 recession levels, IBON noted that the US economy continues
to be confronted with stagnant wages, weakened industrial production, soaring
prices of goods and services, rising inequality, and huge government budget deficits,
among others. The group said that aside
from heightening American protectionism, the new US administration may impose more
stringent market-oriented policies on the Philippines and the rest of Asia
Pacific as it has in recent decades through platforms such as the Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Association of South East Asian Nations
(ASEAN). The Asia Pacific remains economically vital to the US, being home to
over half of global gross domestic product (GDP), almost half of global trade
and 60% of total US trade, said IBON.
In the Philippines,
major mechanisms of US political and economic intervention remain intact, IBON
observed. Aside from upholding a string of military deals with the US and
receiving the same amount of US military aid for 2017, the latter also still
remains the single biggest foreign influence on Philippine economy
policy-making. The US$739-million Partnership for Growth (PFG) initiative and
the American and Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce are tools in imposing
neoliberal globalization policies that allow the US to maintain its dominance
in the country and in the region, for instance by pushing for unhampered trade
and the removal of foreign ownership restrictions.
IBON reiterated
that these globalization policies have increasingly kept the Philippine economy
backward and underdeveloped. This has led to growing inequality, chronic
poverty, jobs deterioration, commercialization of basic utilities and services,
and marginalization of resources, leaving the majority of Filipinos deprived of
their fundamental needs.
The group pointed
out that in this time of change in administration and policy shifts, the
Philippines can define a foreign policy that is finally independent of the US
and other superpowers’ agenda. The Philippines can also strengthen its alliance
with neighbors with growing nationalism such as Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia
and further, China, Taiwan, Japan and India, towards developing a solid
regional position against US or any other superpower’s aggression, said IBON.
IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development
institution established in 1978 that provides research, education,
publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic
issues.
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Media & Communications
Department
IBON Foundation
#114 Timog Ave
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