Philippines to iron out issues with European Union

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government remains ready to work with the European Union (EU) to clarify issues and concerns that may affect the country’s privileges under the bloc’s trade preferences scheme, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said.

Trade assistant secretary Allan Gepty said in a statement yesterday the Philippine government, as in the past, is more than willing to cooperate and work with the EU to clarify and shed light on issues and concerns raised by the European Parliament on the country’s human rights situation in its recent resolution.

“This is not the first time that the European Parliament approved such kind of resolutions. The European Parliament has also passed similar resolutions in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020. The Philippine government remains ready to cooperate and work with the EU to clarify these issues and concerns,” he said.

In response to the European Parliament’s resolution, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez emphasized last Saturday the Philippines is compliant with the 27 international core conventions on human rights, labor, environment and good governance.

He said the allegations are not new and the government has always responded to the concerns being raised, as well as facilitated the EU regular monitoring missions.

The European Parliament, in a resolution approved last Thursday, reiterated its call to the Philippine government to immediately end all violence and human rights violations targeting suspected drug offenders, as well as to stop red-tagging human rights and environmental defenders, journalists, trade union activists, and church and humanitarian workers.

In the same resolution, the European Parliament called on the European Commission to set clear, public, time-bound benchmarks for the Philippines to comply with human rights obligations under the GSP+.

In addition, the European Parliament reiterated its call to the European Commission to immediately start the procedure that could lead to the temporary withdrawal of the Philippines’ GSP+ preferences if no substantial improvements are made and the government does not cooperate.

The Philippines is a beneficiary of the GSP+, which allows 6,274 products to enter the bloc at zero duty.

As a condition to its EU GSP+ beneficiary status, the country has to implement 27 international conventions on human rights, labor rights, environmental protection and good governance.

“While it is not new, their allegations on HR (human rights) and lack of press freedom are fake news, and those only give false impressions on the real situation in the Philippines,” Lopez said in a Viber message to reporters yesterday.

He said EU politicians should ask the Filipinos in their companies or communities, as well as the EU citizens and EU business chambers in the country.

“At any rate, we continue to provide the facts and figures to the authority, the EU Commission. As mentioned, we continue to facilitate their regular GSP+ monitoring mission and there is one forthcoming at the end of the month,” he said.

He said the monitoring mission is a more systematic and organized process in obtaining accurate information on the country’s real situation.

“They get to visit as well the projects and the marginalized sectors that get to benefit from the EU GSP+ and other stakeholders,” he said.

He said the GSP+ preferences have continued to benefit the country, particularly the marginalized sectors of the economy such as fisherfolks, farmers, micro, small and medium enterprises, and the workers in exporters’ value chain, and have played an important role in addressing poverty and inequality.

He emphasized the EU has been a key partner of the country in pursuing development goals and expressed hope the EU would continue to play this role in the future.

“Our partnership becomes more relevant as we work towards post pandemic recovery. The EU GSP+ would be instrumental in encouraging investments in the country, as well as sustaining job generation,” he said.

In 2020, Philippine exports to the EU under GSP+ reached 1.6 billion euros, representing an all-time high utilization rate of 75 percent for eligible exports.

The DTI said the GSP+ scheme benefits several communities, including those in General Santos, Davao, and Cebu, and exporters in economic zones located in Laguna, Cavite and Batangas.