A Sensible view of American-Philippine trade

Title

Creator

Borja, Luis J.

Language

English

Year

1936

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

6 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL March, 1936 A Sensible View of American-Philippine Trade By Luis J. Borja* Formerly of the United States Bureau of Agricultural Economics The inauguration of the Commonwealth of the Philippines on November 15, 1935, opened the last chapter of the Amer ican-Philippine political relations. This chapter gives the Filipino people an autonomous government which is their stepping stone to complete independence and contains the finishing touches on America’s work which (to quote Former Governor-General Frank Murphy) “consummated an achieve ment without parallel in the annals of colonial administra tion.” But the United States could not have achieved so much in a generation in the Philippines without the Islands’ rich natural resources which the American government developed indirectly by establishing free trade between the possession and the mother country—and now that the American sover eignty over the islands is drawing to a close and the unrestrict ed entry of Philippine goods into the United States is ended as provided in the Tydings-McDuffie act, it may be timely and of interest to review the past, see the present and look into the future of the American-Philippine trade relations which proved a blessing to the Philippines and a benefit to the United States. The most natural and enduring trade should be between regions of dissimilar climates and particularly between tropical and temperate countries. Countries having the same climate produce the same crops. Tropical and temperate countries Calendar Years 1890-1894 Rank Countries of Origin United Kingdom............ Spain............................... Germany......................... United States................. France............................. phenomenal development, Annual Average Value of Imports 84,772,108 3,849,618 639,895 483,164 263,429 however, of i the American occupation Percentage of Total Philip pine Imports 30 24 4 3 2 United 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th The , _______ ,____ , States-Philippine commerce after ... __ __ r____ of Manila on August 13, 1898, is due to the tariff protection each receives in the market of the other. The United States-Philippine trade compared with Phil ippine trade with other countries from 1899 to 1901 is as follow: the Year Total P. I. Trade Value I>. I. Trade with Per Cent to V. S. Value TotslP. I. Trade 1899 ................... $34,039,568 $5,288,341 16 1900 .................... 47,854,152 5,114,049 11 1901 ................... 54,665,824 8,080,547 15 To give furt’-.er encouragement to American-Philippine com merce the tariff of 1902 was passed giving Philippine products entering the United States a 25% preferential duty and elim inating Philippine export duties on merchandise shipped to the United States only. With a slight amendment brought about by the tariff act of 1905 and 1906, the principal provi sions of the tariff of 1902 remained until 1909 when the in hibition in the Treaty of Paris with regard to equality of treatment between Spanish and American goods was lifted. The United States-Philippine trade compared with Phil ippine trade with other countries from 1902 to 1909 is as follow: produce different crops, thus trade in agricultural products between these countries is natural. Tropical countries have too little commercial coal and iron to support a great manu facturing industry,'but \yith their favorable climate for agri cultural pursuits they produce almost an unlimited amount of raw materials they exchange for the manufactured goods from the north. It seems reasonable to expect that as the countries in the north temperate zone eliminate the difference in their economic Year Total I’. I. Trade Value 1902 ...................... $62,014,070 1903 ...................... 66,208,130 1904 ...................... 58,727,231 1905 ...................... 63,505,324 1906 ...................... 59,046,660 1907 ...................... 63,551,677 1908 ...................... 61,787,192 1909 ...................... 66,008,756 development, they will turn more and more to the tropics for their markets and sources of raw materials. Thus, it seems natural to find a flourishing trade be tween the United States, a temperate country, and the Philippines, a tropical coun try, even before the Amer ican occupation of the Islands. Available figures show that from 1890 to 1894 the United States ranked fourth among countries ex porting to the Philippines. *The writer i> indebted to Mr. I.eoi M. G onzales.Cb ief, Di v ision of St at ist ie> Department of Agriculture and Com ineree, Philippine Commonwealth, fo Pon of Mamin, monument to America’s endeavor in the Philippines. Pier 7 in the background is the longest covered pier in the world. I>. I. Trade with U.S. Value Per Cent of Total P. I. Trade $15,634,122 25 16,908,526 25 16,753,788 20,430,353 28 32 16,347,175 15,396,925 27 24 15,552,591 25 21,171,344 32 The Tariff of 1909 provides that all American products except rict* may enter the Islands duty free and likewise' Philippine products except rice may enter the United States duty free. This free entry provision, however, did not apply equally on all Philippine products. Besides ri< e which had to pay full duty, sugar in excess of 300,000 tons, wrapper and filler tobacco in excess of 1,000,000 lbs. and cigars in excos of 150,000,000 pieces were to pay regular duty upon <‘ntering the American Market. These restrictions wen1 nominal. 'fhe Philippine export duties on goods shipped to foreign countries were continued, .-omewhat reduced. (Plmne turn to pace 15) March, 1936 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 15 A Sensible View . . . (Continned from page (!) The tariff of 1909 was in vogue until 1913 when unlimited free trade in both directions was established. The United States-Philippines trade* compared with Philippine trade with other countries from 1910 to 1913 is as follows: The 1924-1933 annual average imports of the Philippines from the United States and other countries arc as follows: Vear Total P. I. P. I. Trade PerCe Trade Value with U.S. Value I nt of Total >. I Trade 1910.. . 890,347,824 $37,310,267 41 1911.. . 92,861,534 39,029,614 42 1912.. . 116,591,201 47,191,017 40 1913.. . 101,085,742 43,110,279 42 1922 ........... 175,780,942 111,849,926 63 1923 ........... 208,252,737 135,399,558 65 1924 ........... 243,355,557 157,712,505 65 1925 ........... 268,610,038 178,342,524 66 1926 ........... 256,183,311 171,578,833 67 1927 ........... 271,425,556 187,516,547 69 1928 ........... 289,711,144 199,413,913 69 1929 ........... 311,607,117 217,058,431 70 1930 ........... 256,260,081 183,525,089 72 1931 ........... 203,150,792 145,562,079 72 1932 ........... 174,733,165 133,945,616 77 1933 ........... 180,451,814 134,853,433 75 Since the removal of trade obstacles in 1913, the United States-Philippine trade has grown very rapidly and the unlimited flow of Philippine products into the American market continued until 1934 when the Philippine sugar export quota under the Jones-Costigan act was set at 906,416 long tons. The United States-Philippine trade compared with Philippine trade with other countries from 1914 to 1933 is as follows: United States.................. All other countries......... Total................................. Per Cent of Value Total P. I. Imports 868,436,149 61% 43,669,689 39% 112,105,838 100% The 1924-1933 annual average exports of the Philippines to. the United States and other countries are as follows: Per Cent Total P. I. P. I. Trade with of Total Trade Value V. S. Value P I.Trade 1914........... 1915 ........... 1916 ........... 1917 ........... 1918 ........... 1919 ........... 1920 ........... 1921 ........... 897,278,324 837,310,267 38 103,125,187 115,433,520 161,401,337 233,793,693 231,756,878 300,562,138 203,953,896 50,034,280 58,510,805 100,855,006 147,971,529 132,144,106 197,506,040 124,486,808 48 51 62 63 57 66 61 United States........ All other countries. Total....................... Per Cent of Total P I. Exporta 8102,567,702 77% 30,925,298 23% 133,493,000 100% It is evident then that the Americans are the best customers of the. Filipinos who in turn con sume predominantly American products. Thus the United States-Philippines free trade relations are mutually beneficial to both countries. OXY-ACETYLENE Welding & Gutting Equipment Philippine Acetylene Go. 281 CALLE CRISTOBAL, PACO MANILA, P. I. When— you buy matches ask for '*'* IP IN II ILII IP IP II IE MIATCINILS’”’ any matches bearing the name Philippine Match Co., Ltd. will give you service and protection kruegers FINEST BEER IN TINS You Too Will Like It! ORDER FROM Trans-Pacific Trading Co. 130 T. Pinpin Tel. 2-42-04 Manila, P. I. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL

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