EU trade privileges depends on PH human rights situation — DTI
Human rights situation remains to be a big factor in whether or not the European Union (EU) will retain the Philippines’ trade privileges under the bloc’s Generalized Scheme of Preference Plus or GSP+.
According to Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo, the country’s GSP+ privileges may be revoked if it does not meet certain requirements at the “political level.”
The Philippines is the only country from the Southeast Asian region that enjoys trade privileges under the GSP+scheme.
Rodolfo stated that an EU delegation that visited the country earlier this year raised some concerns at the political level as part of the regular monitoring cycle.
“The (EU) delegation highlighted that there might be some issues, particularly concerning human rights… we were able to provide some responses but we are continuing our engagement,” Rodolfo added.
The DTI official emphasized that the the engagement of senators with EU legislators is “very important” in smoothing out issues.
Members of the EU Parliament earlier this year warned the government to act on the reported human rights abuses – particularly on extrajudicial killings – or lose its GSP+ privileges.
The GSP+ system will end next year and will be replaced with a new system.
