Philippines, European Union to hold FTA talks next week

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and the European Union (EU) are set to hold the next round of free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations next week.

Speaking at the European-Philippine Business Dialogue, EU Ambassador Massimo Santoro said the next round of talks for the Philippines-EU FTA will be held in Cebu next week.

“I am very confident that it will be a successful round of discussion, following already three successful rounds of discussions,” he said.

Since the announcement of the resumption of FTA talks in March 2024, the Philippines and the EU have conducted FTA negotiations in October last year, as well as in February and June.

Negotiations for the Philippines-EU FTA first took place in 2016, followed by a second round in 2017, but the talks were put on hold amid the EU’s concerns about the Philippines’ war on drugs under the previous administration.

Board of Investments  Promotion Services executive director Evariste Cagatan said in the same event that the Philippines and the EU aim to conclude the FTA talks ahead of the expiration of the EU’s Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus, which currently provides duty-free access to more than 6,000 Philippine products to the bloc.

“The Philippines and the EU are actively pursuing negotiations for a comprehensive FTA that is expected to strengthen economic and investment linkages between both parties,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Philippines and Chile are looking to hold the next round of FTA negotiations in December, aiming to conclude talks within the year.

“We are considering another negotiation round in December,” Trade Undersecretary Allan Gepty told The STAR.

He said the Philippines and Chile conducted a successful round of negotiations for the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement earlier this week.