MANILA - Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said on Monday he is hopeful the Philippines and the European Union will seal a free trade agreement (FTA) soon as the two parties meet in June to formally resume talks.

At the European-Philippine Business Dialogue in Makati, Pascual said they have no specific timeline for finalizing such a deal, but because the Philippines currently enjoys a trade deal with the EU under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) he hopes that can help move the FTA talks further.

Under GSP+, over 6,000 Philippine products can enter Europe duty-free, provided the country commits to implementing international core conventions covering labor rights, human rights, good governance, and environmental issues. It will end in 2027.

“I think the EU negotiator will not deny us the minimum of what we are already enjoying the GSP+,” said Pascual.

Talks on FTA were suspended in 2017 due to human rights concerns under the Duterte Administration. Now Pascual is more optimistic that an agreement can be sealed.

"In addition to preserving the trade preferences for important exports of the Philippines like tuna, garments, etc enjoying GSP+. One important motivation for us to really push for the FTA is to attract more European investments. Those European companies that will make the Philippines their production center," Pascual said.

"We do not produce enough dairy products. We don’t produce enough meat. So there is a complementarity with that. But we need to fix certain processes in the Philippines. If we can identify those areas where we can be complementary then everything will work fine." The DTI chief added, 

EU Ambassador to the Philippines Luc Veron said the Philippines stands to benefit from the FTA similar to GSP+. This includes sectors in renewable energy, electric vehicles, and mining.

"We have in place GSP+ trade preferences which are beneficial to the Philippines. The Philippines enjoys a trade surplus with the European Union of about 1 billion euros per year thanks to the trade preferences," said Veron.

European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) President Paulo Duarte added, "We see more specific sectors such as agriculture, renewable energy,  garments, the minerals- being the Philippine one of the top producers such as nickel, copper, gold, among others."

The EU said trade between the two partners hit €18.4 billion in 2022, while bilateral trade in services between the EU and the Philippines reached €4.7 billion in 2021.