Can the By Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services, Inc. (DEALS) ‘Committees to be Created under the JPEPA. 1 Article 13: Joint Committee 2. Article 26: Sub-committee on Trade in Goods 3. Article 49: Sub-committee on Rules of Origin 4, Article 56: Sub-committee on Customs Procedure 5. Article 64: Sub-committee on Mutual Recognition 6. Article 86: Sub-committee on Trade in Services 7. Article 106: Sub-committee on Investment 8. Article 113: Sub-committee on Movement of Natural Persons 9. Article 130: Sub-committee on Intellectual Property 10. Article 133: Sub-committee on Government Procurement 11, Article 139: Sub-committee on the Improvement of the Business Environment 12. Article 140: Consultative Group on Improvement of the Business Environment 13. Article 141 Liaison Office on Improvement of the Business Environment 14, Article 147: Sub-committee on Cooperation, The administration of the treaty will ereate a bureaucratic and financial nightmare that will effectively wipe out whatever little economic benefits there may be under the IPEPA. ‘The creation of new government offices or agencies is currently being discouraged in view of the ongoing government reorganization efforts and the fiscal deficit. These are the grounds being invoked by the Executive Branch in resisting the creation of Philippine Trade Representative Office that seeks to improve the trade policy-making and negotiation process and prevent the mistakes of PEPA from ever happening again, And yet JPEPA will effectively create not just 1 but 14 new offices. The JPEPA provides forthe creation ofa joint committee that will review the implementation and operation of the JPEPA', as well as the creation of at least 11 sub-committees, 9 working groups’, I consultative group’ and | liaison office’ to administer the JPEPA. By their very nature, the JPEPA sub-committees and working groups must necessarily be staffed by the appropriate high- ranking, technically competent government officials who, it must be noted, are in short supply, and are currently overworked and ‘underpaid. Will the IPEPA sub-committees require the hiring of new officials? Or will they add tothe burden of the current bureaucracy? ‘Were the financial and personnel costs of creating this entirely new bureaucracy even considered inthe first place? As pointed out carer, the JPEPA is just the first of several bilateral agreements being negotiated by the Executive Branch. If the JPEPA is approved together with its attendant bureaucracy, then in all likelihood, the U.S., China, South Korea, India, and all other fiture bilateral trading partners will insist on the ground of the most-favored-nation clause - that similar offices be set up to administer their respective bilateral agreements. In such a situation, the Philippine government would be hard-pressed to not give in to their demands, thereby creating a bureaucratic and financial nightmare, not to mention rendering the Philippines extremely vulnerable to pressure from foreign governments Notes: ‘Art. 13, JPEPA Basic Ageeement. Art. 13, JPEPA Basic Agreement. There ate separate and distinct sub-committees for trade in goods, rules of origin, customs procedures, mutual recognition, trade in services, investment, movement of natural persons, intellectual property, government procurement, improvement of the business environment, and cooperation. Other sub-committees may be established as agreed upon by the Japanese and Philippine governments, “These working groups are for human resource development (Art, 23, JPEPA Implementing Agreement), financial services (Art. 30, IPEPA Implementing Agreement), ICT (Art, 33, JPEPA Implementing Agreement), Energy and Environment (Art. 36, JPEPA Implementing Agreement), Science and Technology (Art, 39, JPEPA Implementing Agreement), SMEs (Art 47, JPEPA Implementing Agreement), Tourism (Art. 50, JPEPA Implementing Agreement), Transportation (Art. 53, JPEPA Implementing Agreement), and Road Development Art 56, PEPA Implementing Agreement). “Forimprovement of the business environment (Art, 18, JPEPA Implementing Agreement) “Onimprovement ofthe business environment (Art. 19, JPEPA Implementing Agreement). ee