PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he has received strong words of support from Germany and the Czech Republic for the resumption of Foreign Trade Agreement negotiations.

In a media interview with the Philippine media delegation here on Friday afternoon (local time), Marcos Jr. underscored the necessity of advancing negotiations during his visits here to solidify trade relations between the Philippines and Europe.

"We always bring it up, especially when we're in the EU, we mention the FTA. It needs to be continued and completed," Marcos Jr. emphasized, underlining the significance of the FTA in providing a structured framework for partnerships and investments.

Marcos Jr. further noted the eagerness of private corporations to see the FTA finalized, underscoring its potential to facilitate increased investment in the Philippines.

"They are consistent in their positioning and they say that they are very much in favor of that," Marcos Jr. said, expressing appreciation for the EU's unwavering stance on the matter.

Marcos added that the EU's focus on Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific region, both economically and strategically, reflects a broader recognition of the area's growing importance in the global economy.

"It really is part and parcel of that... So it is the common EU position," Marcos Jr. explained, highlighting the regional bloc's unified approach towards fostering closer economic ties with the Southeast Asian countries.

In his working visit in Berlin last 12 March, Marcos Jr. said that Germany's support is important to the resumption of negotiations for a PH-EU FTA and the Philippines' reapplication to the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+), which expired last July 2023.

The process of negotiating the trade and investment agreement between the Philippines and the EU commenced on 22 December 2015, with subsequent negotiations occurring in February 2017.

However, negotiations were paused until July 2023, during which time both the EU and the Philippines expressed their intention to engage in technical discussions with the aim of possibly restarting negotiations.