MANILA – Trade secretary Ramon Lopez targets to raise the country’s utilization rate of European Union Generalised Scheme of Preference Plus (EU GSP+) to 80 percent.
Lopez said the DTI has been conducting activities like doing business and free trade agreement seminars nationwide to encourage exporters tap this special trade arrangement with the EU.
The EU published last week the EU GSP+ report for 2018-2019.
The report said the country’s utilization rate was growing by 2.7 percent between 2016 and 2018. Utilization rate in 2016 was 71.2 percent. It further grew to 74 percent in 2017 and slowed down to 73.1 percent in 2018.
“Hopefully, we want to see it in the 80 (percent),” Lopez said.
Earlier, the delegation of the EU to the Philippines estimated that some €2 billion (P113 billion) entered the EU market under the GSP+. This is about 25 percent of the country’s total exports to the EU.
Under the EU GSP+, Philippine products that arrive in the EU market are free of tariff. This applies to 6,274 goods.
Commenting on the EU report, Lopez said the Philippines still observes labor rights despite the Security of Tenure (SoT) Bill vetoed by President Rodrigo Duterte last year.
The EU report said the veto of the SoT Bill came as a “surprise” as it was considered as a key policy of the government to align national labor legislation with the International Labor Organization.
“And even if you talk about the veto of SoT Bill, that doesn’t mean we don’t observe labor rights. Even the current, the status quo observes labor rights,” Lopez added. (PNA)
