Europe Votes to Revoke Trade Perks with Philippines Over Rights Abuses

The European Parliament voted to remove tariff perks enjoyed by Philippine products over human rights abuse under the Duterte administration.

Parliament called the European Commission to start the procedure on the temporary withdrawal of the Philippines from GSP+ preferences, perks only the Philippines and 7 other countries have enjoyed since December of 2014.

The GSP+ is an incentive agreement in which 6,274 products or nearly $2 billion worth, a quarter of Philippine exports to the EU last year, received zero-tariff entry under “preferential treatment, according to the resolution. The agreement operates under the condition the country follows the 27 core international conventions that include human and labor rights, environmental protection and good governance.

626 European lawmakers voted to revoke the perks, seven disagreed and 52 abstained.

Among the human rights issues cited by European lawmakers were:

The conviction of Maria A. Ressa, founder of news website Rappler and former researcher Reynaldo Santos, Jr. for cyber libel.

Duterte’s war on drugs that has killed at least 8,663 people

The denial of the franchise application of ABS-CBN Corp

The detention of opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima

The killing of 43 land rights defenders in 2019

The resolution stated “The Parliament expresses its deepest concern at the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte,”

It called for the Philippine government “to implement all the recommendations outlined by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to address a range of serious issues, such as the widespread and systematic killings related to the authorities anti-drug campaign.”

“The Parliament is further alarmed about the deteriorating level of press freedom in the Philippines, and condemns all threats, harassment, intimidation, unfair prosecutions and violence against journalists, including in the case of Maria Ressa,” the lawmakers said. “All politically motivated charges against her and her colleagues should be dropped.”

Ramon M. Lopez, Trade secretary, said “We have an inter-agency working group in place that attend to the regular monitoring visits and respond accordingly to various issues if and when they are officially raised by the EU Commission,”

Lopez added “The EU Commission has a mechanism in place and process to follow to verify issues before sanctions are imposed.”

Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr., Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. President, said “It is quite unfair that they’re probably basing their reaction on the basis of the advocacy of mostly opposition groups,”

He added “There’s really not much to lose because we have not really fully utilized the European GSP+.”