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.
