EU, Philippines to initiate talks this year on scope of planned FTA

This was conveyed by EU officials during his visit to Brussels early this month, Pascual told reporters recently in Manila.

Pascual met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to convey his country’s interest to pursue the proposed FTA.

“My expectation is that there will be scoping discussion within the year based on the way my counterparts have expressed,” he was quoted as clarifying by a news agency.

The timely resumption of the talks is crucial as the country is expected to graduate from the EU Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) in the near term, he said.

Both sides launched exploratory talks for an FTA in 2013, with two negotiations done until 2017.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (DS)