Free-trade Pacts Ignore Labor

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Written by Estrella Torres, Tuesday, 12 January 2010

http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/top-news/20823-free-trade-pacts-ignore-labor.html
THE critical shortage of professional and skilled workers in several member-countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) is not being filled because of at least three main factors that restrict worker movement within the Pacific Rim economic grouping.

A study commissioned by the Apec Business Advisory Council (Abac) of the 21-member group showed the United States needing 500,000 nurses by 2025, Japan 500,000 by 2014, and Canada 113,000 nurses by 2014.

It also cited the immediate need for some 36 million skilled workers in the US and Canada , and 25 million workers needed in Russia .
The study said the three key hurdles to free movement of workers within the Apec include restrictive border security policies in rich member-economies, lack of training infrastructure in developing countries and high cost of worker placement fees.
On the high cost of placement fees imposed by recruitment agencies in sending countries like the Philippines, leading recruiters at the Apec forum where the study was discussed rejected sole blame for the high fees on the ground that agreements forged with hosting countries adopted the restrictive policies of these countries, and this included the high placement fees.
Former foreign affairs secretary Roberto Romulo, Philippine representative to the Abac, said rich economies like the US are “reluctant to take up these issues.” He added that even the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement remains a restrictive treaty due to strict requirements for Filipino nurses to undergo a two-year language training before they could quality for jobs in Japan .
But a group of recruitment agencies present at the forum on “Global Demand for Labor” at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati insisted also the high cost of placement fees are based on the restrictive policies of rich countries. Such are followed by the Philippines , for example, according to Lito Soriano of LBS Recruitment Solutions.

He said these issues should be placed in the free-trade agreements (FTAs) and memorandum of understanding to facilitate effective labor mobility and discourage the proliferation of recruitment agencies imposing high costs on workers.
“The responsibility should be in the hands of the receiving countries and not so much from the sending countries,” said Soriano.

He also said the Philippines , even being the world’s third-largest source of migrant workers, has not been able to fill in the employment needs in developed countries due to the lack of qualified workers and the absence of training infrastructure that would allow workers to qualify for technical jobs abroad.
Soriano said in the last eight years, the Philippines has not been able to send out new batches of seamen for lack of training facilities to prepare new college graduates to qualify for jobs abroad.
He said the Philippines supplies more than 20 percent of seamen in international passenger and cargo vessels. But since 2001, these Filipino seafarers are still the same people who were just renewing their contracts, he added.
“Contrary to the claims that we are increasing the numbers of Filipino workers being deployed abroad, in reality, there is no adequate Filipino workers to fill up the employment needs overseas,” said Soriano.

He said there are 200,000 licensed Filipino nurses and the demand from the US last year was more than 10,000. However, he said only 288 Filipino nurses have been deployed last year.

He also cautioned the Philippines in signing free-trade agreements with developed countries because he believes they will only result in further job losses for local workers, pointing to the China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations Free-Trade Agreement as example, where 7,000 products had their tariffs eliminated, exposing local industries to stiff competition at a time when they are still not prepared adequately.

The Abac study also noted that temporary worker labor policies within Apec remains uneven and patchy and that FTAs focus principally on the movement of business people and neglected the movement of the skilled and unskilled workers.
The study said of the 42 FTAs signed by Apec member economies, 10 of them have no chapter on labor mobility. It added that although 28 of these FTAs contain provisions on the movement of business or natural persons, only seven of them have labor chapters.

Apec includes Australia , Brunei , Canada , Chile , China , Hong Kong-China , Indonesia , Japan , South Korea , Malaysia , Mexico , New Zealand , Papua New Guinea , Peru , Philippines , Russia , Singapore , Taiwan , United States and Vietnam .