The Philippines at the Crossroads to Economic Globalization

摘要

style="text-align:justify;"> The 21st century New Economic Order (NEO) showed higher level of economic cooperation among nations. As a norm of International Economic Relations (IER), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement took effect in 1996. The study is a discussion of the conflict and agreement between domestic economic policies and the GATT/WTO from the point of view of Small and Medium Enterprise owners and managers. By applying the qualitative analytic descriptive method of research and the dualistic theory of international law, the study finds that GATT/WTO a) promotes fair competition, b) makes the manufacturing sector more competitive and c) boosts the economic development in the merchandising sector. The study showed that there is no significant difference between the perceptions of SMEs as regards the impact of membership of the Philippines to WTO/GATT. Being at the crossroad to economic globalization, the Philippines faces the challenges of; a) the need to highlight the congruence of national law and membership to GATT/WTO; b) putting up structures and mechanism for inclusive development; c) revisiting regional economic arrangements and d) countering regional terrorism. Nevertheless, the trajectory of economic model remains toward global trade cooperation.