Brussels, 01/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - The EU is awaiting official confirmation by the authorities in the Philippines that they want to negotiate a bilateral free trade agreement with the EU27.
According to the EU's ambassador in Manila, Guy Ledoux, quoted by The Philippine Star newspaper, the Filipino secretary of state for trade, Gregory Domingo, expressed his interest to the EU commissioner for trade, Karel De Gucht, during an ASEAN meeting, for this Asian region to negotiate a trade pact with the European Union. Ledoux explained that “the EU is waiting for official confirmation in its interest. We haven't received that.” After negotiations for an ASEAN (Brunei, Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) EU free trade agreement were frozen in 2007, the EU last year launched negotiations for individual free trade agreements with Singapore (in March), then with Malaysia (in October). The EU27 is still awaiting the go-ahead from Hanoi for launching EU-Vietnam talks.
The formal signing of a partnership and cooperation agreement (PCA) at the beginning of September is expected to facilitate negotiations for a free trade agreement with the Philippines. An independent study carried out in 2009 concluded that bilateral discussions between Manila and the EU would be healthy for the Filipino economy (for the results of the study, see EUROPE 10024). (E.H./transl.fl)