On Tuesday 11 April, the European Commission denied the rumours of a freeze in the EU-Philippines free trade negotiations. But its negotiators warned the Filipino side in mid-February that new negotiation rounds, initially planned for the autumn, would not be scheduled until Manila showed improvement in the country’s human rights situation, in connection with the violent anti-drugs war being conducted by Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte.
On Tuesday morning, the GUE/NGL Group at the European Parliament hailed, through its shadow rapporteur on this issue Dutch national Anne-Marie Mineur, the “encouraging” position of the European Commission “to pause” the EU-Philippines free trade negotiations, due to the “deep concern” about the country’s worsening human rights situation.
Immediately questioned by EUROPE, the Commission denied the rumour, also reported by other media, at the start of April, of a suspension of the negotiations. “The negotiations are at a very early stage. The next round has not been scheduled for the moment. The EU is involved in almost 20 trade negotiations, not all of them can advance as quickly”, a Commission spokesperson told EUROPE.
“The EU is very concerned about the human rights situation in the Philippines and about the extra-judicial murders that have been carried out. In this context, our focus right now is on the ongoing GSP+ monitoring exercise, as well as on reviewing the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review of the United Nations Human Rights Council. We will then carefully consider what implications the findings might also have for the EU's trade engagement with the Philippines”, the spokesperson stated.
An information note from a meeting of a Commission experts' group on the generalised system of preferences (GSP), dated 16 February, which EUROPE saw on Tuesday, is formal: "The second round of the EU-Philippines free trade agreement negotiations took place in the week of 13-17 February 2017 during which the EU negotiators indicated that further negotiation rounds (that would normally take place in Autumn 2017) will not be scheduled unless the Philippines show clear improvement with regard to human rights issues", the note states.
Furthermore, according to a source close to the issue at the European Parliament, the Commission is reported to have told rapporteur David Martin (S&D, UK) itself, during a closed-doors meeting of the international trade committee in March, that a new round of negotiations would not be scheduled until the Philippines showed a clear improvement in its human rights situation. "Which amounts to a de facto pause", this source stated. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)