Philippines, EU evaluate FTA prospects

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine and the European Union (EU) will now make their respective evaluations on how to move forward on a possible resumption of a free trade agreement (FTA) as stocktaking exercises have just concluded, according to an official of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

“For the EU (FTA), we just finished [the] stocktaking exercise. It was not a scoping discussion,” Trade Undersecretary Allan Gepty told The STAR in a Viber message.

“We will just make our respective assessments/evaluations and see how we can move forward on a possible resumption of PH-EU FTA negotiations,” he added when asked what will be the next step after the stocktaking exercise.

Earlier this month, EU Delegation to the Philippines head of trade Philipp Dupuis told reporters that the purpose of the stocktaking exercise is to see what both countries can expect from each other.

“And to see whether we have any red lines on both sides that can be reconciled,” he said.

“So, we will have some kind of wrap up with the DTI and European Commission and based on that, we will decide whether there is a chance of having a successful FTA negotiation in a reasonable amount of time,” Gepty added.

While the overall goal of the FTA has not really changed since the previous negotiations, Dupuis emphasized that a lot of new factors evolved that may be needed to take into consideration such as digitalization and e-commerce.

“Overall, the general goals haven’t changed. And that’s why we look into this process with a very positive spirit because we know each other already,” he said.

Based on the DTI’s website, the launch of Philippines-EU FTA negotiation was announced in December 2015. The first round of negotiations was held on May 23 to 27 in Brussels, Belgium, while the second round of negotiations was held on Feb. 13 to 17 in Cebu, Philippines.

Trade Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo said earlier that having scoping discussions would be timely as the previous scoping studies were held way back in 2015.

“So many things have happened since the last negotiating rounds and also the last scoping,” Rodolfo said earlier.

He cited the electric vehicles, critical minerals, as well as renewable energy as some of the important topics today that have not been talked about in the previous scoping.

The Philippines and the EU announced their intention to relaunch negotiations for the FTA in July during the visit of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in the country.