On November 12th, 2023, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leader’s Meeting will impinge upon the San Francisco Bay Area, drawing in over 21,000 people and heads of states from 21 countries including President Bong Bong Marcos from the Philippines and US President Joe Biden. Throughout the preceding APEC ministerial meetings earlier in 2023 leading up to the Leaders Meeting, the United States has been pushing forward the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), luring countries to adopt this multilateral trade policy aimed at re-asserting US security and trade interests while opposing China’s Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). The last round of IPEF negotiations are taking place between Nov 5-15.
The International Coalition on Human Rights in the Philippines-US chapter categorically rejects the United States ongoing attempts to re-assert its dominance over the Asia Pacific region via IPEF. In light of the recent murder of labor leader, Jude Thaddeus Fernandez, IPEF and other unequal trade agreements grant countries with deplorable worker’s rights conditions contracts with multinational corporations. These trade agreements are a race to the bottom for cheap labor and worker exploitation, particularly in the Philippines where attempts by workers to unionize is penalized through kidnappings, false arrests, surveillance, and in the case of Fernandez, death.
With finance ministers, heads of states, corporate lobbyists, and CEOs negotiating in closed door meetings that are kept secret for 5 years, IPEF is a deeply undemocratic and unjust process that decides outcomes affecting billions of people. Big Tech has written a majority of the digital trade aspect of IPEF, seeking to steal value from the digital data of different countries. The focus on the digital economy also underscores the United States search for cheap labor even in the tech industry, where much of the research and development of technology will benefit the military industrial complex. IPEF plays a major role in upholding US security and corporate interests in the Asia-Pacific region.
In favor of increasing corporate profit, IPEF devastates local farmers and peasants in developing countries by forcing them to use imported genetically modified seeds created by big agribusinesses, undermining traditional agricultural practices and limiting biodiversity. Instead of improving the lives of peasant farmers in the Philippines, IPEF will deepen their despair by forcing them to grow cash crops meant for export and burying them into deeper debt.
Instead of advocating for the rights and welfare of Filipino workers and peasants, President Bongbong Marcos will sell the Filipino people and their resources to the highest bidder. In fact, Marcos will defend the interests of these corporations by silencing the voice of the Filipino people. ICHRP-US stands with the Filipino in their fight against IPEF and other neoliberal schemes that seek to exploit them further. We advocate instead for people’s rights – right to land, fair wage, and self-determination to control their economic situation.
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