Next round of FTA talks between Philippines, European Union set in October

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

June 23, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and the European Union are set to hold the next round of talks for a free trade agreement (FTA) in October following last week’s negotiations.

Trade Undersecretary Allan Gepty said in a Viber message that the Philippines and the EU had a successful round of negotiations in Brussels, Belgium last week.

“Good progress has been made in the text-based negotiations,” Gepty said.

“Our fourth round of negotiations will be in October in Manila, but we have agreed to take advantage of intersessional sessions to help fast-track the negotiations,” he said.

Since the FTA negotiations resumed in October last year, the Philippines and the EU have conducted three rounds of talks.

Prior to the resumption of talks last year, the Philippines and the EU had two rounds of FTA negotiations, with one in 2016 and the other in 2017.

FTA talks were put on hold after the 2017 round of negotiations amid the EU’s concerns on the previous administration’s war on drugs.

According to Gepty, the trade deal with the EU is very important for the Philippines as the bloc is one of the country’s major trade partners and sources of investments.

“This FTA will further deepen and strengthen our economic relations with the EU,” he said.

“The potential gains from this agreement extend far beyond trade and investments as we cover elements also on sustainability, good governance and cooperation,” he added.

At present, the Philippines is a beneficiary of the EU Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+), which allows the duty-free entry of 6,274 products to the bloc.

Last year, the Philippines’ GSP+ utilization rate hit a record-high of 80 percent.

Philipp Dupuis, minister counsellor and head of the Economic and Trade Section of the Delegation of the EU to the Philippines, said that of the €2.8 billion worth of Philippine exports that are GSP+ eligible, €2.2 billion were exported using the trade preference last year with agri-food, chemicals and footwear as the main beneficiaries.

Total Philippine exports to the EU inched up by 3.1 percent to €9.1 billion last year.