Proceedings of the first Independence congress : held in the city of Manila, Philippine islands, February 22-26, 1930 / Published under the direction of Dean maximo M. Kalaw, executive secretary, University of the Philippines.

84 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

Not only will a large proportion of our present export trade
with the United States continue in the event that the free trade
is abolished but we shall also increase our exports to other
countries. For be it realized that because of the present tariff
privilege they enjoy in the United States, our exports are being
artificially induced to follow the American route and are being
diverted away from other export fields. There are those who
say that there is nothing under the present arrangement which
prevents our exports from entering other fields outside of the
United States if they can really do it, but -it is precisely the
free trade arrangement which does this. The free trade makes
the American market such an advantageous place where to sell
our products now, that they naturally flow into it in preference to other markets to which they would go otherwise.
This tariff inducement, however, is artificial because it is
special and extraordinary. It is impermanent. It arose not
from the ordinary commercial intercourse of the two countries
concerned, or through their mutual consent, but merely from
the desire of a sovereign power to secure preferential treatment
for her own products within a subject territory. The present
share of the United States in our exports amounting to more
than 75 per cent of the total is not indicative of what it would
be in the ordinary course of events. Without the free-entry
privilege enjoyed by our goods in the American market, the
direction of their flow would be different. Europe's share
would be much bigger, and so with China's, Japan's, and also
those of other neighboring countries in Oceania and the Far
East. Whether the total volume of our exports without the
free trade would be as much as it is at present is doubtful, but
it is certain that the share of the United States therein would
be considerably less than it is at present.
This unnatural diversion caused by the free trade is further
shown by the great changes that have taken place in the
geographical distribution of our exports. Before the American
occupation, and even shortly thereafter, Europe was the biggest
market for Philippine exports. More than one-half of our
annual overseas shipments were then taken by European buyers.
In 1900, 55.59 per cent of our total exports went to various