THE Philippine government is still tied to several serious concerns on the proposed Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA) by the European Union (EU), and Manila “could be subjected to possible cross retaliation” that includes withdrawal of trade preferences if there is failure on three essential EU values on human rights, rule of law and democracy.

An official of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the interagency committee to study the proposed PCA of the EU sticks to its original position in 2005, stressing the need to clarify issues with the EU on PCA provisions.

The PCA seeks broader cooperation of the EU and the Philippines on the fight against terrorism, promotion of human rights and the rule of law, legal migration for Filipinos in EU member-states and good governance.

The proposed PCA also includes the need for Asean countries to ratify the 1995 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), on which the Philippine military and police have aired serious apprehension due to possible harassment suits from human-rights organizations.

Asean members must first sign a bilateral agreement with the EU before they could qualify in the comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) that seeks to facilitate trade and investments in the world’s two largest and influential regional blocs.

The Philippines is hosting the fifth Joint Committee Meeting (JCM) for the EU-Asean proposed free-trade deal from June 25 to 27 at the Dusit Hotel in Makati, seeking to explore areas of cooperation for the free-trade deal. The three-day meeting will include exchanges on the liberalization of sectors in transportation, services and professions. The last JCM held in Bangkok tackled liberalization in banking and telecommunications in the two regional blocs.

“The PCA as a bilateral agreement on cooperation on human rights should not be preconditioned on the free-trade agreement being negotiated between the EU and Asean,” said a senior diplomat, who requested anonymity, pending the government’s official submission of its response to the proposed PCA.

“They [referring to the EU] want those three essential values [human rights, rule of law and democracy] to be followed and the Philippines could be subjected to cross-retaliation like... they can withdraw trade preferences [under the EU-Asean FTA] if there is failure on those three essential values,” said the DFA official.

He said the proposed EU bilateral agreement specified a certain level of compliance for the Philippines.

“When you read the text, it clearly states that everything is mandatory, binding and demands commitments from the Philippines, so it leaves us open to possible retaliation if we fail on those aspects.”

The DFA official, meanwhile, said that the Philippines is not rushing to conclude a partnership-cooperation agreement with the EU, saying the proposal “has to be revisited” before the government could come up with “a very precise and clear position.”

“We will inform the EU on these areas where we will have difficulty [in making commitments],” he said.

He said the position is expected to be finished before the Asia Europe Meeting (Asem) Summit to be held in Europe in October.

Ambassador Alistair Macdonald, head of the Delegation of the European Commission to the Philippines, earlier said that Asean countries like Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam are now in the final stages of negotiations for their respective PCAs with EU.

He said the worst-case scenario is that the Philippines will not be able to take part in the FTA between the EU and Asean.

Asean groups the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Burma/Myanmar, Brunei and Vietnam.

The EU, on the other hand, is a regional bloc composed of 27 economies that include developed countries like France, the Italy, Germany, Spain, Belgium, United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Sweden.

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