AS the Philippines and the European Union (EU) resume free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations in Cebu, a labor group told Filipino workers not to be swayed by what it called the EU’s ‘lofty talk’ of labor rights and sustainable development, saying such promises have repeatedly failed to protect workers in other countries.
The Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO) warned that without binding protections for labor rights, an EU-Philippines FTA could mirror Vietnam’s experience, where promised reforms under a similar deal failed to materialize.
‘Without enforceable guarantees for freedom of association, living wages, and decent work, an EU-Philippines FTA will only deepen inequality and exploitation,’ SENTRO said in a statement on Wednesday.
‘We’ve seen this playbook before,’ it added, citing Vietnam and its FTA with the EU, which required the ratification of International Labour Organization (ILO) core conventions.
Despite commitments to align with international labor standards under its trade agreements, Vietnam has yet to ratify ILO Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association, with independent unions still prohibited and several labor activists reportedly detained.
SENTRO also cited the European Union’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+), saying the bloc failed to review the Philippines’ trade privileges despite widespread human rights violations and the thousands of deaths linked to the Duterte administration’s ‘war on drugs.’
‘These lessons are clear: EU trade deals protect capital, not workers,’ the group said.
Since the resumption of FTA talks was announced in March 2024, the Philippines and the EU have held several negotiation rounds in October last year, and again in February and June this year.
The two sides first launched FTA discussions in 2016, followed by a second round in 2017. This was before the process was suspended due to the EU’s human rights concerns over the Duterte administration’s anti-drug campaign.
During the European-Philippine Business Dialogue on October 18, Board of Investments Promotion Services executive director Evariste Cagatan said the Philippines and the EU are working to conclude the trade talks before the expiration of the EU’s GSP+, which currently allows duty-free entry for over 6,000 Philippine products.
‘The Philippines and the EU are actively pursuing negotiations for a comprehensive FTA that is expected to strengthen economic and investment linkages between both parties,’ Cagatan said.
According to SENTRO, the EU is demanding provisions ‘more than what the Philippines has ever agreed to in any trade deal before,’ including measures that would grant European investors legal protections, open Philippine markets and resources, and limit the country’s ability to regulate its own economy.
Citing the proposed digital trade chapter, SENTRO said the EU’s agenda reflects the interests of ‘big tech’ companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft. The chapter reportedly includes binding rules that ban customs duties on electronic transmissions, restrict data localization, limit government access to source code and guarantee free cross-border data flows.
‘The Philippines has no industrial or digital trade policy. On what basis can our negotiators meet these demands?’ SENTRO said, noting that even the United States refrained from adopting similar provisions in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework out of concern for regulatory freedom.
SENTRO urged Congress to exercise strict oversight on the trade talks and demand transparency and accountability from the government.
It also called on Filipino workers to ‘stay vigilant, organized, and united’ in ensuring that any trade agreement would protect their rights, jobs and future.