ISDS Case Map
Philippines
Reacting to news reports about the launch of the formal negotiations for a comprehensive partnership and cooperation agreement between EU and the Philippines, the EU-ASEAN FTA Campaign Network urged both the EU and Philippine governments to disclose to the public the contents of the cooperation agreement.
The Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the Philippines and the European Union will contain provisions on migration and corruption.
The Philippines and the European Union yesterday started talks in Manila for a general framework on bilateral cooperation that is requisite for a free trade agreement. The talks, which could take as long as two years to complete, will dwell on a wide variety of issues -- from peace, security and human rights, to protection of intellectual property and workers rights.
The Philippines and the European Union (EU) will formally start on Monday the negotiations for the Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA) that qualifies Manila to the comprehensive free-trade agreement between the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that seeks to facilitate trade and investments between two influential regional blocs.
The EU-ASEAN Campaign network, with members in Europe and Southeast Asia, assailed the statements made recently by Philippine Assistant Secretary Ramon Cabigting of the Department of Trade and Industry expressing support to the EU proposal to proceed with bilateral talks with the EU and the country's willingness to liberalize its services sector.
European Commission delegates will be arriving in Manila next week to continue negotiations for an agreement that will govern the two economies' political and economic relations, officials said.
It was a dizzying roller coaster-year for trade. As the multilateral trade talks faltered, bilateral and regional free trade and economic partnership agreements on the other hand surged, fueled mainly by the aggressive push by the most powerful economies - the US, EU, Japan and China - of their respective brands of commercial diplomacy.
The Philippine Bureau of Customs (BOC), the government's second-largest revenue earner, said the implementation of Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (Jpepa) will hurt its collection for the year as it stands to lose billions of pesos.
In the first part of this article, the issues that hounded the ratification of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) will be discussed, as well as the Senate Resolution that led to ratification.
A national federation of small fisherfolk organizations in the Philippines filed a diplomatic protest Tuesday at the Japanese Embassy against poaching by Japanese tuna factory ships in waters off Aurora province.
