European Union, Philippines to sign FTA
The European Union and the Philippines have reached substantial agreement on a new free trade deal, the latest bilateral agreement that Brussels is pursuing as it seeks to diversify its economy amid tensions with traditional trading partners including China, Russia and the United States.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted Tuesday, “we just agreed on a free trade deal,” but EU officials later clarified that it was a preliminary agreement, and that a full deal would take further negotiations. The EU’s top trade negotiator, Maros Sefcovic, said he and Philippine Trade Secretary Maria Cristina Aldeguer-Roque have been negotiating a deal aimed at boosting the nearly 30 billion euros of annual trade between the 27-nation EU and the Southeast Asian nation of 115 million people. Sefcovic said it would create “a modern, forward-looking partnership between the EU and the Philippines, one that will open new opportunities for our exporters and investors, strengthen our supply chains and deepen bilateral economic ties for years to come.”
He said he expects it to be finalised within a year or two. Parliaments on both sides will also need to ratify it.
EU-Philippine trade is dominated by electronics, with the EU exporting aircraft, pork and pharmaceuticals while importing semiconductors, integrated circuits and industrial machinery made in
the Philippines.
