THE PHILIPPINES or inconvertibility of currency. However, a full Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) agreement is in effect, and U.S. investors may contract for coverage under this arrangement. Government Procurement Practices: Philippine governmentprocurement policies do not generally discriminate against foreign bidders. Preferential treatment is given to Filipino firms in the purchase of medicines. Government offices which grant rice allowances to their employees must purchase the rice from a specified Filipino source. Pre-qualification for potential bidders in infrastructure projects requires the domestic corporation to be at least 75 percent Filipino owned. Areas of interest to U.S. suppliers, including power generation equipment, communications equipment, and computer hardware, are not affected by significant restrictions. The Philippines is not a signatory to the GATT Government Procurement Code. Customs Procedures: One element of the Import Liberalization Program is pre-shipment inspection of imports from some Asian countries, imposed to prevent misdeclaration of goods into the Philippines and tariff evasion. This service covers imports to the Philippines from ten countries (including Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and all ASEAN countries). The government has announced plans to globalize this program in early 1991. The Philippine government has been working to make custom procedures more transparent and to minimize widely reported irregularities and corruption in the system. The Philippines is not a signatory to the GATT Customs Valuation Code. 6. Export Subsidies Policies Enterprises registered with the BOI are entitled to tax and duty exemptions. The Philippine Omnibus Investment Code of 1987 provides for several programs which benefit Philippine industry. These include income tax holidays, tax and duty exemptions for imported capital equipment, as well as tax credits for purchases of domestic capital equipment and raw materials. Export traders are entitled to tax credits for imported raw materials required for packaging purposes. 7. Protection of U.S. Intellectual Property The Phillipine government is a party to the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the Universal Copyright Convention and is a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization. The Philippines remain on the U.S. Trade Representative's Special 301 "watch list" under the provisions of the 1988 Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act because "piracy of videotape and sound recordings has reached dramatic proportions." Philippine intellectual property protection laws, modeled on U.S. laws, are generally very good, with some important exceptions. The key difference with U.S. laws is provision for broad compulsory licensing of patents and school textbooks. THE PHILIPPINES The infrastructure for police enforcement in the Philippines is good. Enforcement raids can be readily arranged. Where administrative enforcement is possible, as for example by working with the Video Regulatory Control Board (VRB), cases can be resolved expeditiously. However, where enforcers must have recourse to the courts, enforcement is slower and less certain. Many judicial officials are not familiar with intellectual property laws. As a result, intellectual property enforcers frequently complain of arbitrary and capricious decisions. The Philippines argues that U.S. standards of intellectual property protection are too high for developing countries. Patents: The main problem with the present patent law is provision for compulsory licensing. Several pharmaceutical products have been subjected to compulsory licensing, but, considering the many years this provision has existed, the actual number of licenses issued is small. A new patent law drafted in the Department of Trade and Industry contained several objectionable provisions, including even broader compulsory licensing and an exceptionally short term of protection for patents. However, the law has not been passed and continues under study in congressional committee. Trademarks: Trademark counterfeiting is widespread. While enforcement is possible, results can be disappointing because of slow legal procedures. Copyrights: The Motion Picture Exporters Association reports effective cooperation with the VRB. Printed material piracy and audio piracy are not a problem. Computer software is pirated, but we are unaware of any efforts by software owners to protect their rights in the Philippines. A key factor in recent enforcement improvements on the video front is the presence in the Philippines of U.S. firms offering legal versions of videos not previously available. New Technologies: Many shops rent video discs purchased retail in the United States without payment of commercial rental fees to the producers. The U.S. private sector includes the Philippines among its "problem countries" regarding the protection of copyright and estimates copyright losses at $117 million annually. The right of workers, including public employees, to join trade unions is assured by the Constitution and legislation, and is freely practiced without government interference. About ten percent of the nation's employed work force of approximately 23 million workers are organized into over 3,700 trade unions. Subject to restrictions in the labor code and emergency executive powers, strikes in the private sector are legal, and they take place frequently. The right to strike and the status of employees in government-owned industries, however, have not yet been clarified. Numerous strikes by public sector workers occurred. Striking employees of government agencies were threatened with suspension and THE PHILIPPINES dismissal, but it appears that these threats were not carried out. Workers in state-owned enterprises carried out strikes during 1990 without sanctions. However, the Secretary of Education, Culture and Sports issued suspension and dismissal orders against about 1,000 striking public schoolteachers and the orders were carried out. b. Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively Labor's right to organize and bargain collectively is provided for in law and is strongly supported by President Aquino. These rights were expanded and strengthened by the passage of the Labor Law Reform Act of 1989 (the Herrera Bill), which balances the need for greater stability in labor relations with full respect for worker rights. Since President Aquino took office, the number of collective bargaining agreements in force has increased from 3,112 to 4,098. Labor legislation is applied uniformly throughout the country, including in the export processing zones. C. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor The government prohibits forced labor, and there are no reports of it being practiced. d. Minimum Age for Employment of Children The Constitution contains prohibitions against employment of children below age 15, except under the sole responsibility of parents or guardians and then only if the work does not interfere with schooling. e. Acceptable Conditions of Work The official minimum wage in the Manila region at the prevailing exchange rate at the end of the year was $4.23 per day. Outside Manila, the minimum varies in each of the 12 regions, ranging from $2.69 to $3.86 per day. For agricultural workers on plantations, the minimum wage ranges from $2.52 to $2.88, depending on the size of the agricultural establishment; $2.52 is the minimum for non-plantation agricultural workers. Despite the minimum wage laws, substantial numbers of workers, mostly laborers, janitors, messengers, drivers, and clerk-typists, earn less than the law stipulates. The standard work week is 48 hours. The law mandates a full day of rest per week. Employees with more than one year on the job are entitled to five days of paid leave. A comprehensive set of enforceable occupational safety and health standards is in effect, and the standards for protecting workers against hazards of the workplace and harmful substances are relatively advanced. f. Rights in Sectors with U.S. Investment Worker rights conditions in goods-producing sectors with U.S. investment tend to be better than those in Philippine industry taken as a whole. Firms with U.S. investment are extensively organized by all of the unions within the broad spectrum left to right of local labor organizations. Nearly all of these firms have concluded collective bargaining agreements. The labor relations scene in companies with U.S. capital is as active as that in industry generally. This is a THE PHILIPPINES result of workers' greater expectations regarding pay, benefits, and fair play in dealing with U.S.-Philippine joint venture management. Firms with U.S. investment have acquired a reputation for being responsible and responsive in dealing with the workforce. Members of the American Chamber of Commerce meet regularly in the organization's industrial relations committee to consult and to coordinate labor-management relations activities. The prevailing lowest wages in companies with U.S. capital are generally much higher than the legal minimum wage. Employees in most of these firms work a 40-hour week with premium pay for overtime. All of the largest firms with U.S. participation apply U.S. standards of worker safety and health, mainly because of the requirement of their U.S. insurance carriers. Extent of U.S. Investment in Goods Producing Sectors Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Survey of Current Business August 1990, Vol. 70, No. 8, Table 13 * Section 8 is an abridged version of Section 6 of the Philippines country report included in the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1990, submitted to the Congress January 31, 1991. For a comprehensive discussion of worker rights, please refer to that report. SINGAPORE Key Economic Indicators (Millions of Singapore Dollars (S$) Unless Otherwise Noted) 1/ The 1990 exchange rate has been estimated by averaging data for the first seven months of the year. 2/ Singapore does not receive bilateral aid, but benefits from donors' ASEAN-wide efforts. 1. General Policy Framework The government of Singapore has developed an outward-looking, export-oriented economic policy framework that encourages two-way flows of trade and investment. It has become a major center for light manufacturing, financial and |