NEO-NATIONALISM’S PREMISES & CONTENTIONS / Let
‘unbridled free trade’ give way to ‘fair trade’
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
In the international
trade scene, the President had declared it emphatically: “no to unbridled free
trade!” Fair trade should be the game in trade, not free trade. This does not
mean a full return to protectionism, which proved counterproductive in the
past. Protectionism had only served rent-seekers, who did not engage in
full-scale S&T innovations that could have propelled us to advance in
product development, achieving world-class standards in many of our articles of
industry & trade quite early. Returning to a regime of protectionism is
surely out of the question.
Permit articles of
imports to come in, employ this strategy to meet ‘commodity security’ and keep
prices at competitive rates, while minimizing the possibility of shocks. This
should also challenge domestic market players to become more competitive,
precisely by engaging in dynamic research & development or R&D, resulting
to higher-level product innovations (intended for the domestic market).
Meanwhile, continue to institute a regime of ‘safety nets’ and strengthen those
that have already been erected. However, where ‘infantile enterprises’ are
barely out of the take-off stage, e.g. petrochemicals and upstream steel,
provide certain tariff protection, but set limits up to that point when dynamic
R & D have made production more cost-efficient, permitting thereafter
competitiveness in both the domestic and global market. The latest move of
government to provide the greatest incentives on upstream steel, for instance,
is a right move, as it will entice market forces to install our long-delayed
integrated steelworks.
[From: Erle Frayne D.
Argonza, “New Nationalism: Grandeur and Glory at Work!”. August 2004. For the Office of External Affairs –
Political Cabinet Cluster, Office of the President, Malacaňan Palace.]
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