PH hopeful on EU GSP Plus decision

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) hopes the EU will decide on the country’s dutyfree export privileges under its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Plus program based on data and not on political noise.

Trade and Industry Undersecretary Ceferino S. Rodolfo said this as the results of the EU Commission’s GSP Plus review is expected to come out anytime soon.

“Am hopeful they will have a balanced decision by looking at our compliance with all the 27 international conventions and data rather than the political noise,” said Rodolfo.

By data, Rodolfo meant on the war on drugs, how this has been implemented and what the government has done on instances of untoward incident whether there has been investigation and resolution.

In the case of the government war on drugs, Rodolfo said they showed reports from the Philippine Drugs Enforcement Bureau and other government agencies.

Rodolfo pointed out that the Philippines has submitted a written report to the EU and EU officials also came over and held talks with government officials and civil society and made a report to the EU Parliament.

The Philippines, he said, is also committed to engage in dialogue with EU.

“At the end of the day, we are expecting a balanced report rather than a political decision,” he said.

Despite the uncertainty, Rodolfo was optimistic saying: ”I think we are going to be retained in the EU-GSP Plus program.”

Even EU ambassador to the Philippines Franz Jessen also raised hopes of the GSP Plus in favor of the Philippines. EU is currently undergoing review of the GSP Plus and results are expected in early January next year.

The second review on the country’s status is expected to focus on three issues – labor rights, environment and EJK. Of these three, Jessen said the Philippines has improved on labor rights and environment.

“(On) Labor rights (PH) is doing well,” he said while the country’s compliance to environment protection has been strengthened with the government’s ratification of the Paris Climate Treaty.

EJK, which the EU noted in the 2016 report during the Aquino administration, has remained a thorny one. But Jessen said that that the review results could be a “matter of degrees” only.

For instance, the labor situation has improved but the question is how much, the same as the issue of EJK.

Behind all these is the plight of Mindanao people the EU development cooperation has tried to address. Several fish exporters come from Mindanao, benefitting much from the GSP Plus program.

Exports to EU grew 36 percent in the first half this year as the impact of the GSP+ is gaining momentum and is expected to further grow.

Full year utilization rate of the GSP+ in 2016 was 70.8 percent from 68.3 percent in 2015. But compared to the country’s overall exports, exports of products covered by the GSP+ still remain at $1.7 billion out of $6.6 billion total exports to EU.

There has not been much high-level official interaction between the Philippines and EU. Thus, they put a big weight when EU Council President Donald Tusk was appointed by Duterte as his vice-chairman at the EU-ASEAN Commemorative Summit marking the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the ASEAN-EU relations in November this year. Although there was no bilateral meeting between the two leaders during the summit.

It is not certain though if Duterte will come to Brussels for the ASEM (AsiaEurope) Summit in October next year.