Answer:
The Bell Trade Act of 1946 or Philippine Trade Act is the act passed by the United States Congress which lays down the conditions for economic relations between the Philippines and the United States upon the attainment of Philippine independence from the United States that occurred in 4 July 1946.
The United States Congress offered $ 800 million for the reconstruction of the Philippines after World War II if the parity clause and Bell Trade Act were to be enacted by the Philippine Congress which it enacted on July 2, 1946. Among its provisions preferential tariffs over the next 20 years, setting quotas on Philippine exports to the United States, free trade between the United States and the Philippines for 8 years, setting two pesos equal to one dollar, [1 ]the Philippine government is obliged to place restrictions on the transfer of money from the Philippines to the United States, a parity clause that gives United States citizens the same rights as Filipinos to use or extract minerals, forests and other natural resources of the Philippines.
The parity clause requires an amendment to the 13th article of the Philippine Constitution of 1935 which reserves only for Filipinos to use the natural resources of the Philippines. The amendment can be obtained only with the approval of 3/4 of the members of the House of Representatives and Senate and a plebiscite . The refusal to give seats to six members of the pro-left Democratic Alliance and three members of the Nacionalista party due to fraud and violent campaigning allowed Manuel Roxas to get the legislature’s parity clause ratified. [2]The parity clause was condemned by patriotic Filipinos. The Bell Trade Act expired in 1954 and was replaced by a revised trade agreement between the United States and the Philippines or the Laurel-Langley Agreement in 1955
