Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez expressed confidence the European Union (EU) will not turn its back on helping address poverty in the Philippines through continued duty-free treatment on the country’s exports under its Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP) Plus as he likened to “bullying” the recent threats from the EU Parliament to remove the export privilege due to alleged human rights abuses of the Duterte administration.
“To date, Philippines still enjoys EU GSP+ preferences, and this actually redound to benefit the marginalized sectors of the economy, the fisherfolks, farmers, MSMEs, the workers in the value chain of the exporters, precisely fulfilling the objectives of the GSP+, which is to help address poverty and inequality. I don’t think they will be turning their back on these noble development objectives,” said Lopez, reacting to the recent EU Parliament Resolution on the recent human rights developments in the Philippines.
“It seems that some of their parliament members are misinformed. The allegations are not new, and are still unfounded. The government has always responded and been giving them the facts accordingly, and it has always facilitated the EU regular monitoring missions. It has been proven that Philippines is compliant with the 27 international core conventions on HR, labor, environment and good governance,” he added.
Under the EU GSP Plus, the Philippines could enjoy zero duties on its exports to the
European Union of products falling under more than 6,000 tariff lines. In 2020, data EU said 26 percent of total Philippine exports to the EU or 1.6 billion euros enjoyed preferential treatment under this scheme.
The Philippine started enjoying the duty-free status privilege for its exports to the EU in Jan. 2014 until December 2023. It is the only nation in ASEAN eligible of the EU GSP Plus.
The GSP Plus, however, is a unilateral act of the EU to its trading partners as long as they comply and effectively implement 27 international conventions on human rights, labour rights, environmental protection and good governance.
The trade chief further likened the EU Parliament’s resolution to “bullying a small country.”
“It is unfortunate that the politicians of a huge economic block is the one destroying the image of small democratic country of peace-loving Filipinos, and it is like bullying a small country. They should ask the Filipinos in their companies or communities. They should also ask the EU citizens, the EU business chambers in the country,” he said as he noted of the 72 percent high approval rating for Duterte.
Lopez also said that the Philippines continued to provide the facts and figures to the authority, the EU Commission and facilitate their regular GSP+ monitoring mission with one forthcoming at the end of the month. “This process is more systematic and organized in obtaining accurate information regarding the real situation in the country. 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.
On Thursday, Feb. 17, the EU Parliament adopted three resolutions on the human rights situation in the Philippines and Iran and the political crisis in Burkina Faso.
The EU Parliament strongly condemned alleged thousands of extrajudicial killings and other serious human rights violations related to President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs” in the country. It also condemned alleged intimidation and violence against those seeking to expose allegations of such abuses in the country, such as human rights activists, journalists and critics.
In particular, Members of European Parliament (MEPs) called for the Filipino authorities to stop “red-tagging” organizations and individuals, such as trade unionists, human rights defenders and media representatives. “Red-tagging” involves the government linking such associations and people to communist groups, which continued to result in killings, threats, warrantless arrests and harassment of oppositional voices.
While urging the Filipino authorities to thoroughly investigate any extrajudicial killings and similar violations, the Parliament also called for respect of the right to freedom of expression, and to ensure that journalists can do their work without fear.