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.

ECONOMIC SECTION

9.1'

mestic necessities, should be made sufficiently low to make the
resulting burden in the form of enhanced prices more than comn.
pensated by the increase in domestic production and domestic
wealth that such a protective tariff would bring to the country
as a whole.
In connection with the proposed revision of our existing tariff
rates, the question has been raised as to whether or not the
Philippines is bound to give protection to American goods that
enter our markets. If such an obligation on our part exists
it would arise from the fact that the United States has given
and is giving special protection to Philippine products in the
fixing of her tariff rates. Such, however, is not the case. At
no instance has the United States passed a tariff measure for
the purpose of giving protection to a Philippine product. On
the contrary, major Philippine exports like copra and hemp
appear in the free list of the United States tariff and receive
no protection whatsoever in that market; There is, therefore,
no obligation on our part to revise our tariff in order to give
further protection to American products. However, it would
be the better policy in proposing to the American Congress
any changes in our present tariff rates pending the granting of
Philippine independence to give American products some
amount of protection if we are to expect Washington to act
favorably on such proposed changes. Such protection given
should be limited only to the extent of offsetting any disadvantage that American manufacturers may find here in competing with manufacturers from other countries.
It is evident that no protection can be given now to Philippine products against competition from goods coming from
the United States. Neither can tariff for revenue be successfully levied on articles which do not compete with our own
products when such products can be supplied by the United
States, for the increase of the rates of duty on such articles
would only decrease rather than increase our revenues. Such
decrease would result from the fact that duty-paying imports
from foreign countries would then find it more difficult to
enter our market and meet the competition of American goods.