DTI confident on retaining EU-GSP+ privileges

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez is confident the European Union (EU) would not remove the current set of trade privileges enjoyed by the country as the government sent a clear message that there are no human rights violations in the country.

The Philippine government, led by Lopez and Special Envoy to the EU Edgardo Angara, met recently with trade institutions and parliament ministers in Brussels to give a clearer picture of the real situation in the Philippines, particularly on EU’s concern on alleged violations of human rights in the country in relation to President Duterte’s war on illegal drugs.

“We assured them of our human rights adherence and reminded them that we’re a signatory to the international treaty. If there are news, these are few isolated cases that you cannot avoid due to some abusive police operations. Even the President did not like it and he expressed his anger by replacing 100 policemen in Caloocan,” Lopez said.

“We have a clear policy on human rights. We adhere to all the principles and conventions to human rights and even the government would always respect human rights,” said.

The trade chief admitted that some members of the EU Parliament were indeed worried about the alleged cases of extrajudicial cases in the country.

“That is why they needed assurance from us that these are not state sanctioned and there are no violations. If there is, the President does not like it and it would be investigated,” Lopez said.

“We have to continue to update them. What they liked is we made the effort to go there and present facts and information. They want to follow that up through our continuous dialogue,” he added.

Lopez said the Philippines promised the EU for more updates on the facts and figures on the government’s anti-drug campaign as well as investigation results.