Social Darwinism: The world trade order under the new normal

Buying local and helping secure the jobs of millions of Filipinos could be our way of expressing our greatest love for our country. This reminds me of the lyrics of a Whitney Houston song that says, “The greatest love of all is easy to achieve, learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all.”

which is not only a major proponent of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) trade liberalization program that dismantled global trade barriers, but also a strong advocate for consumer protection and heavily dependent on China for its consumer needs, has launched a “Buy America” campaign. This is an aggressive program that some sectors say is a protectionist trade policy, but which President Donald Trump finds necessary for the nation’s survival.

With Social Darwinism, or the theory of survival of the fittest, now an almost universal attribute, as many economies of the world shore up their conservation measures to protect their economies, as competition for an already eroded global market tightens, the shift in the US and Japan’s trade policies should send the message to Philippine policy makers that we should also protect our economy.

If the US and many parts of Europe have secured their borders from import surge and pushed their citizens to buy local to protect their economy, where do you think will the world’s biggest exporters like China dump their products? Surely, they will be dumped in countries where import surge protection measures are lax, like the Philippines.

Should this happen, it would perhaps spell the death of the Philippine manufacturing industry. Philippine made products cannot compete with the cheaper China made products because most manufacturers in China are subsidized, if not owned by the government. Most factories in China operate not for profit, but to generate employment for Chinese citizens.

Thus, unless the Philippine government strengthens its import surge protection measures like safeguarding duties and strictly enforcing mandatory product standards, and asserts its sovereign authority to prioritize locally made products in all government procurements, millions of jobs will be lost in the local manufacturing industry alone, and millions more from the retail and other allied industries.

This is now the time for us Filipinos to exercise our patriotic values and love of country by buying Philippine made products. After all, buying local and helping secure the jobs of millions of Filipinos could be our way of expressing our greatest love for our country. This reminds me of the lyrics of a Whitney Houston song that says, “The greatest love of all is easy to achieve, learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all.”

“Buy Pinoy, Buy Local” is being pushed by the Federation of Philippine Industries.