An official of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Philippines hopes that the negotiations for the much-awaited EU-Philippines Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the 27-nations European Union and the Philippines, will be sealed by 2026.

“The negotiations are ongoing and we are hoping that talks will be concluded by 2026 and be able to bring our countries closer,” said Kevin Charuel, managing director of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Philippines, in an ambush interview at the sidelines of the France-Philippines Business Forum in Makati City on Friday.

The Business Forum, aimed at improving bilateral and investment ties between the Philippines and France, was attended by Trade Secretary Cristina Roque and Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and French Nationals Abroad Laurent Saint-Martin.

Saint-Martin highlighted the growing economic partnership between France and the Philippines, emphasizing the significant presence of over 150 French companies employing nearly 100,000 people and generating €3 billion in revenue in key sectors including aerospace, infrastructure, and healthcare.

For his part, Trade Undersecretary for International Trade Group Allan Gepty said that the Philippines and EU’s negotiations with the EU-FTA remain on track based on the timelines that the two parties have agreed on.

“This coming June would be our third round of negotiation. Of course, we are conducting intercessional meetings so we can thresh out issues in the various chapters that we are negotiating. To date, there were no pressing issues or major hurdles. Negotiations and engagements with our counterparts in the EU are currently smooth, productive, and constructive. We are hoping to ramp up the text-based negotiations to at least begin the market access aspect of the negotiations will be swiftly commenced,” Gepty said.

Fast-tracking, double-time work

Gepty maintained it is important to fast-track the negotiations to expand the country’s trade network, which is included in the DTI’s Philippine Development Plan, as per the directive of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

The Trade official stressed that the Philippines is banking on its exit from the EU Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+), a pressure point for the country to finish the EU-FTA talks.

“Under the current rule of the EU-GSP+, once you breach the upper middle-income status and maintain that for three consecutive years, then the Philippines can exit to EU-GSP+. So, we are trying to avoid the scenario that our preferential trade in the EU market will be disrupted. This is the reason why it is very important that before we graduate from EU-GSP+, an EU-FTA is already concluded and effective. We have to work hard to finish this,” Gepty disclosed.

Gepty, however, said the Philippines is just nearing becoming an upper middle-income economy.

The World Bank, last February, said it expects the Philippines to attain upper middle-income status by 2026, adding that it expects the country to grow by 6.1 percent in 2025 and 6 percent in 2026.

US, EU are very important markets

Gepty said that 65 to 67 percent of the country’s trade goes to FTA partners, which are the ASEAN member nations, and ASEAN Plus 1, namely Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, South Korea, India, and Hong Kong.

“On the remaining portion, there are two major economies that have a relatively big share, the US and the EU market, which is almost the same in terms of total trade from 8 to 10 percent. With our policy now to expand our trade network, we see a lot of opportunities that we can seize, not only in the US market but with the EU market, considered the most important market for the Philippines. Their market shares are bigger even though we don’t have an existing FTA with them. So, the direction for us, the government, is to enhance and improve our arrangements with them,” he explained.

On the other hand, Gepty said the Philippines is continuously advocating a separate FTA with the US. 

Earlier, US President Donald Trump imposed a 17 percent reciprocal tariff on the Philippines but later halted for 90 days.

In negotiating the tariff to be lowered or even zeroed, Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs, Secretary Frederick Go said an FTA with the US should be pushed.

“In my opinion, the best possible outcome is a Free Trade Agreement, which means, zero tariffs on their side, zero tariffs on our side – that’s probably the best possible outcome of that meeting but again it’s open communication, dialogue, cooperation and let’s see what we can negotiate,” Go said on Thursday after he said that he will be meeting with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to negotiate on the imposed 17 percent tariffs for US-bound Philippine products, in the coming days.