The European Union is set to release a report on the human rights status and other international agreements on EU-Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP+) by June, an official said on Friday.
Although the decision, whether or not the Philippines can enjoy zero-tariff benefit to the EU market, will come up in January 2018, EU on Asia and the Pacific managing director Gunnar Wiegand said that the bloc, particularly the mission team who came to the country last February, will be releasing a general view of the human rights and labor situation, among others, of the Philippines.
“We are looking forward to specific report passing a number of questions we have and recommendations we have given and I was promised this report will reach us by the end of next month,” Wiegand said.
He added that their recommendation will mostly center on labor standard, human rights standard, particularly President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war against alleged drug dealers and users, which reportedly killed at least 9,000 individuals since he assumed the office.
Wiegand lamented that the EU did not see any progress on the Philippines’ compliance on Labor Standard which was set by the bloc.
“A great number of things which is linked for example to labor standards where we don’t see some progress but it is also a question of standards of human rights which are applied and of course issues which have been raised by us in the context of the war against drugs also play certain role in this,” the EU diplomat said.
Wiegand had visited the Philippines for three days to attend the Asean Regional Forum this week.
In February, the EU mission went to the Philippines and stayed for 10 days to assess if the country still qualifies for the zero-tariff benefits to the EU market.
In order to keep the benefits under the GSP+, the Philippines should make good “steady or slow progress” in its implementation of its commitment to the 27 international treaties and conventions on human rights, labor rights, environment and governance.
The EU-Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP+) allows the Philippines to export 6,274 eligible products duty-free access to the EU market.
The Philippines has been exporting to EU products such as crude coconut oil, canned tuna, pneumatic tires, spectacle lenses, relays, and preserved fruits under GSP+. The top five Philippine exports to the EU under the GSP+ this year are Agri oil products; Electrical Machinery; Processed meat and fish; optical products; and processed vegetables, fruits and nuts.
Wiegand said the principles of EU, which is adherence to the rule of law and respect for human rights, are standard provisions for countries that benefits the GSP+.
“Its access is linked to the respect for our 27 International Conventions to which the Philippines is party and this Conventions respect is being monitored by all partners in the world who benefit from the unilateral trade concessions of the EU undertake similar commitments and this is being monitored,” he said.
The EU was the largest exporting partner of the Philippines in January 2017, with almost $900-million or 17.5 percent of total Philippine exports with an estimated $225-million export under the GSP+ scheme.
In 2016, a senior trade diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity warned the Philippines that it may lose the GSP+ due to President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on illegal drugs.
The diplomat feared that Duterte’s war against drugs which led to a spate of extrajudicial killings may lead to a withdrawal of trade preferences by the EU.
The Philippines may experience the same fate of Sri Lanka when the EU decided to stop the GSP+ benefits or the preferential treatments for Sri Lankan imports due to its failure to address reported human rights violations in the country.
Sri Lanka was reinstated with the benefits after it had set out a path of major reforms aiming for national reconciliation, respect for human rights, the rule of law and good governance principles, and applied again for the GSP+ in 2016.
EU ambassador Franz Jessen noted previously that the Philippines is the only country within Asia that benefits from the GSP+.
“And this is something that we were able to do because of the partnership that we had, the strings of our relationship, the shared outlook on the world, global issues, our cooperation in the UN system,” Jessen said.”And I’m very happy about that because it is important that we work to shape a joint agenda,” he added.
Jessen said all EU programs with the Philippines is derived from its “pro-poor” and human rights agenda.
“European Union is a union of values. We were born out of a peace process in Europe. We work based on shared values in order to have sustainable oeace and development in Europe. That’s the whole purpose of our existence in Europe and we think it’s very valid foundation for our existence,” Jessen pointed out.