Free Trade in the Philippines: Its Consequences and the Role of the Government

Abstract

Free Trade was introduced by the Americans in the Philippines in 1909 to serve their imperialist needs. Sources of raw materials and additional market were the primary factors which drove the Americans to annex the Philippines. Since the Philippines attained her “independence” from the United States in 1946 until today, the Philippine government has always been active in liberalizing the economy and bolstering the country's free trade relations with the United States and other industrialized countries through WTO-led globalization. This undergraduate thesis is an explanatory, recommendatory and a historical analysis of the Free Trade Policy implemented by the American colonial government (1898-1946), of the Bell Trade Act, of the Parity Rights, the decontrol program, the IMF-WB intervention during the Martial Law period and globalization in the Philippines today. The study dealt primarily on the role of the Philippine government in liberalizing the Philippine economy. Moreover, the study showed the programs, policies, laws and activities of the Philippine government since 1946 which either liberalize the economy or remedy the negative effects of free trade. This undergraduate thesis studied the mechanism of US neocolonialism up to the implementation of globalization. Finally, the study enumerated and evaluated the impacts of free trade relation of the Philippines with the United States to the socio-economic setting of the Philippines. The author recommended measures that will counter the effects of free trade so that the Philippines can attain economic independence and national industrialization. The author conducted library research and retrieved government documents in doing this study.