Bilateral labor agreements and trade in services: The experience of the Philippines

College

School of Economics

Department/Unit

Economics

Document Type

Book Chapter

Source Title

Let Workers Move: Using Bilateral Labor Agreements to Increase Trade in Services

First Page

109

Last Page

127

Publication Date

2013

Place of Publication

Washington, DC

Publisher

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank

Abstract

The Philippines is one of the world’s largest labor exporters. In 2009, nearly 10 percent of its 90 million people lived and worked in at least 200 destinations worldwide. Enhancing the positive and mitigating the negative effects of this temporary labor migration requires sound policies and institutions. Over three decades, the Philippines, in cooperation with host countries, has advanced far in this task.
This chapter examines its experience. It is organized into eight sections. The first section describes the substantive provisions of the Philippines’ bilateral labor agreements (BLAs) with the United Kingdom; Spain; Qatar; and Taiwan, China, to manage temporary labor migration. The second section analyzes institutional and regulatory arrangements to manage labor inflows and outflows (host country and origin country roles and private sector responsibilities). The third section examines mechanisms for ensuring the protection of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). The fourth section assesses the development impacts of remittances and knowledge and skills transfers facilitated by BLAs. The fifth section examines several issues raised by the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Framework Agreement on Services of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The sixth section compares BLAs and trade in services agreements, showing that BLAs can complement commitments under the GATS. The seventh section highlights best practices of the Philippines in implementing BLAs. The last section summarizes the Philippines’ experiences with BLAs. An annex provides statistics on OFWs in selected economies.

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Disciplines

Economics | International Law

Note

Chapter 6

Keywords

Labor policy--Philippines; Collective labor agreements--Philippines

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