THE Philippines is seeking to settle sticky issues in the proposed partnership cooperation agreement (PCA) with the European Union which include government’s commitments to uphold human rights and rule of law in the country before the Asia Europe Meeting (Asem) Summit in Beijing in October this year.

Edsel Custodio, foreign affairs undersecretary for international economic affairs, said the Philippines remains tied to the EU’s proposed agreement, as it requires high commitments to uphold EU’s core values on human rights, democracy and rule of law.

“Unless it [EU’s requirement on core values] can still be softened and there will be no cross retaliation in terms of withdrawal of trade preferences, then we could proceed to the formal negotiations for the PCA,” said Custodio.

The PCA qualifies each member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in the EU-proposed comprehensive free-trade agreement (FTA). So far, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam have started negotiations for their respective PCA with the EU.

“It is envisioned that formal negotiations for the PCA between the Philippines and the EU will be announced during the Aseam Leaders’ Summit in Beijing,” he said.

Custodio stressed: “Hopefully, the Japan Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement [Jpepa] would be approved by the time. Then the Philippines should be able to react formally to the EU draft on PCA, taking us closer to the road map for formal negotiation.”

He said the proposed agreement with the EU is more complicated than the Jpepa because the PCA does not only involve trade issues but also human rights, legal migration, good governance, antiterrorism rules and the need to ratify the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

“Before we negotiate, we need to determine our priorities, and these [priorities] should be coherent to the principles of the EU,” said Custodio.

For instance, the European Commission principles on migration are in the form of border control, he said. “But for the Philippines, our objective is to seek the highest protection of the rights of Filipino migrant workers and migration as one aspect of economic development...these issues must be balanced in the PCA.”

The formal negotiations for the FTA between EU and Asean started in May 2005 but the Philippines could not engage in the talks as it needs to sign first the bilateral PCA with the EU.

Ambassador Alistair MacDonald, head of the Delegation of the European Commission to the Philippines, earlier allayed fears that the PCA would result in the withdrawal of trade preferences or cross retaliation under the EU-Asean FTA if the Philippines fails to fulfill its obligations in upholding human rights as provided in the PCA.

He explained that when there is violation of PCA obligations, the two parties will just negotiate whether to terminate or to proceed with the agreement.

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