{"id":6645,"date":"2018-01-18T14:15:28","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T06:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ibon.org\/?p=6645"},"modified":"2018-01-18T14:15:28","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T06:15:28","slug":"independent-foreign-policy-foreign-interests-behind-train-cha-cha-says-ibon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/independent-foreign-policy-foreign-interests-behind-train-cha-cha-says-ibon\/","title":{"rendered":"Independent foreign policy? Foreign interests behind TRAIN, Cha-cha, says IBON"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>While President Duterte likes to claim\u00a0that his administration adheres to an independent foreign policy, it appears that\u00a0his\u00a0major programs such as the packages of tax reforms and the planned Charter\u00a0change (Cha-cha) are actually pushed by\u00a0US and other foreign interests.<\/p>\n<p>IBON noted that the tax reforms and Cha-cha\u00a0are among the key policy reforms long lobbied for by US business groups\u00a0with\u00a0active support from American aid agencies. It cited the US&#8217;s\u00a0Partnership for\u00a0Growth\u00a0(PFG) initiative, an aid program participated in\u00a0and coordinated by\u00a0the US Agency for International Development (USAID), State Department,\u00a0Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC)\u00a0and other US agencies as well as the World\u00a0Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and various UN bodies.<\/p>\n<p>Part of the PFG implementation is The Arangkada Philippines Project\u00a0(TAPP) of the USAID and the American Chamber of\u00a0Commerce (AmCham) through the\u00a0Joint Foreign Chamber of Commerce (JFCC). Under the TAPP, the JFCC has produced\u00a0Legislation\u00a0Policy Briefs\u00a0that identified broad recommendations for Congress and the\u00a0Executive.<\/p>\n<p>Among hundreds of specific policy proposals\u00a0of the JFCC are comprehensive tax reforms that will raise excise tax on\u00a0petroleum products, impose sin taxes (alcohol, cigarettes, and tobacco\u00a0products), as well as broaden the base of the value-added tax\u00a0(VAT), while reducing the\u00a0corporate income tax. It also pushed for the lifting of constitutional\u00a0restrictions on foreign\u00a0investments through Charter change (Cha-cha).<\/p>\n<p>IBON noted that the US remains a major player\u00a0in the Philippine economy.\u00a0In the\u00a0past decade (2006 to 2016), American businesses\u00a0have invested US$4.12 billion\u00a0or 10.3% of the total foreign direct investment (FDI) that flowed into the\u00a0domestic economy, the\u00a0second biggest among all foreign investors. The US is\u00a0also the second largest market for products from the Philippines,\u00a0accounting\u00a0for US$89.22 billion or 15.6% of the country\u2019s total exports in the past 10\u00a0years.<\/p>\n<p>Both the pro-business tax reforms of the\u00a0Duterte administration and Cha-cha for greater economic liberalization will\u00a0further\u00a0benefit US corporations. This includes lower corporate income tax that will be\u00a0offset by heavier indirect taxes at the expense of\u00a0the public, and the opening up\u00a0of additional sectors of the economy for US investments and profits, said IBON.<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While President Duterte likes to claim\u00a0that his administration adheres to an independent foreign policy, it appears that\u00a0his\u00a0major programs such as the packages of tax reforms and the planned Charter\u00a0change (Cha-cha) are actually pushed by\u00a0US and other foreign interests. IBON noted that the tax reforms and Cha-cha\u00a0are among the key policy reforms long lobbied for by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[4,14,533],"tags":[357,356,355,1227,116,1006],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6646,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6645\/revisions\/6646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}