Businesses from the European Union (EU) are pushing for a free trade agreement (FTA) between the Philippines and EU as a priority in attracting more foreign direct investments into the country.
Chris Humphrey, executive director of the EU-Asean Business Council , in a press conference, echoed the opinion of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) in advocating ease of doing business in the country, saying there is a lot more progress that can be done in cutting bureaucracy and in transparency on government procurement and other areas.
According to Humphrey, businesses in Europe are pushing for the FTA and not just for the renewal of the Generalized System of Preference (GSP) plus.
Although potential concerns about human rights and investment environment in the Philippines have been raised, Humphrey said politically, the Philippines has increased its relevance dramatically with the Marcos administration’s accommodating and engaging foreign policies.
“That is also a factor that will gravitate (towards) getting the FTA,” he said.
Humphrey noted the importance of having the FTA in place since the Philippines “will lose GSP plus at some point.”
“But you need to lose it for the right reason and the right reason is your continued economic development. The important thing then is to make sure that the FTA is in place when that happens, so you can continue as you trade better and smarter with Europe,” he said.
Humphrey is accompanying 70 representatives from 36 companies in Europe currently in the Philippines to explore business interests in finance and insurance, manufacturing, automotive, electronics, digital economy among others.
Lars Wittig, ECCP president, in the same press conference, s aid the Philippines further leverages its status as the only Asean country beneficiary of the EU GSP+ trade preference.
Witting said the Philippines accounts for just 4.7 percent of the e $350 billion accumulated investments of European businesses to the Asean.
“Certainly, there is much opportunity for Europe and the Philippines to strengthen their economic ties, especially in line with their longstanding trade and investment relations,” said Wittig.
ECCP and EU-ABC meanwhile will release its advocacy papers at European-Philippine Business Dialogue on May 25 at Dusit Thani Manila.
In a separate meeting, Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual told members of the EU-ABC the Philippines is keen on pursuing the resumption of negotiations on the FTA.
Pascual said a successful negotiation of the FTA will help the Philippines secure additional duty-free market access beyond those covered by the EU GSP plus scheme and provide a conducive framework for attracting greater investments from the EU.
Pascual also said an FTA will put the Philippines at par with other Asean countries which are aggressively pursuing FTAs with the EU. – Irma Isip
