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AFTA:
the Real Reason Philip Morris Invested in the Philippines
by Ulysses
Dorotheo, Nov. 12, 2001
At a time when
tobacco manufacturing and sales decline in the West, in Asia there
is good news for tobacco transnational companies seeking new and
more open markets.
The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) established in 1993 now comprises
the ten countries of ASEAN: Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia,
Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The agreement provides for the phased reduction of tariffs on manufactured
imports from ASEAN countries, including tobacco, through a mechanism
called the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme. Countries
are committed to reducing these import tariffs on most products
to 0 to 5 percent by 2003 (with later implementation dates for Cambodia,
Vietnam, Burma and Laos).
Philip Morris, the world's largest international cigarette manufacturer,
was evidently aware of this when it began construction of a new
16 billion peso (US$300 million) manufacturing plant in Sto. Tomas,
Batangas in the Philippines last July.
Quite obviously, the company stands to benefit from the tariff reductions
covered in the AFTA by manufacturing cigarettes within the region,
rather than importing them from outside the region. The plant, expected
to become fully operational by 2003 will become Philip Morris' regional
hub for its operations, producing its deadly products not only for
the Philippine market but for the Asian market as well. Indeed,
this ensures the deaths of even more Filipinos and is tantamount
to exporting death throughout the ASEAN.
Yet, despite the glaring fact that her health secretary skipped
the groundbreaking rites for this state-of-the-art facility, the
Philippines' Chief Executive was all praises for the decision of
Philip Morris to locate its "Asian jewel" in the country.
"To those who are saying the Philippine economy is going down, listen
to this--P16 billion in new investments," President Arroyo said
in her speech.
Anti-tobacco advocates are well aware that while the Philippine
government earned P21.4B from the sale of tobacco, it spent P46.4B
in healthcare for Filipinos suffering from tobacco-related diseases,
losing precious billions that could've been used to help uplift
many Filipino lives.
The poor bear the greatest burden for smoking, since they cannot
afford chemotherapy for cancer, daily medications for asthma, or
open-heart surgery for clogged coronary arteries (Pro-tobacco policy
is anti-poor).
With the agreement of ASEAN leaders last Nov. 7, 2001 to accept
China into the AFTA, the AFTA is poised to become the world's largest
free trade zone, tipped to encompass nearly 2 billion consumers
within a decade. We can only begin to imagine the enormous potential
for more tobacco-related death and disease when Philip Morris and
other tobacco transnationals penetrate China's markets.
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