{"id":6872,"date":"2022-09-19T04:08:43","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T02:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/?p=6872"},"modified":"2022-09-19T04:06:28","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T02:06:28","slug":"lack-of-human-rights-accountability-threatens-important-eu-trade-benefits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/lack-of-human-rights-accountability-threatens-important-eu-trade-benefits\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of human rights accountability could threaten important EU trade benefits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The grave <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philstar.com\/headlines\/2022\/08\/23\/2204433\/european-union-trade-privileges-hinge-philippines-rights-situation-dti\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">human rights situation<\/a>\u00a0in the Philippines remains a factor of concern for the European Union\u2019s (EU) decision to maintain or withdraw its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philstar.com\/headlines\/2022\/08\/23\/2204433\/european-union-trade-privileges-hinge-philippines-rights-situation-dti\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trade privileges<\/a> under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (<a href=\"https:\/\/trade.ec.europa.eu\/access-to-markets\/en\/content\/generalised-scheme-preferences-plus-gsp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GSP+<\/a>) with the island nation. This is what officials from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) told senators during a Senate committee hearing on trade and industry on August 22, 2022.<\/p>\n<p>In February 2022, EU parliamentarians had admonished the Philippine government in its fifth <a href=\"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/european-parliament-discusses-adopts-urgency-resolution-on-the-philippines\/\">EU urgency resolution<\/a> under the former Duterte administration regarding serious human rights violations. In particular, the EU pointed out the lack of accountability for the numerous extrajudicial killings in the so-called \u201cwar on drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Under the GSP+, about 7,000 trade items at stake or 26 percent of Philippine exports are granted duty-free entry into the EU; this international trade is worth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philstar.com\/headlines\/2022\/08\/23\/2204433\/european-union-trade-privileges-hinge-philippines-rights-situation-dti\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">two billion euros<\/a>. The condition is the fulfilment of 27 international conventions. The withdrawal of GSP+ privileges could easily happen, according to Undersecretary for Trade Ceferino <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philstar.com\/headlines\/2022\/08\/23\/2204433\/european-union-trade-privileges-hinge-philippines-rights-situation-dti\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rodolfo<\/a>, if the Philippines fails to meet certain requirements at a &#8220;political level.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philstar.com\/business\/2022\/03\/06\/2165149\/eu-urges-philippines-address-issues-gsp-scheme-ends-2023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">EU monitoring delegation<\/a> to the Philippines had already alerted the government earlier this year that there were problematic concerns about the human rights situation in the country. The current GSP+ cycle ends in 2023. The Philippines needs to submit a new application until January 2024. In addition, the GSP+ is currently being <a href=\"https:\/\/trade.ec.europa.eu\/doclib\/docs\/2022\/march\/tradoc_160073.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reformed<\/a> by the EU, which could make a new application from the Philippines more difficult.<\/p>\n<p>GSP+ should give developing countries a special incentive to work towards the protection of human rights, sustainable development, and good governance. In October 2022, a Philippine delegation will be sent to Brussels to meet with their EU counterparts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The grave human rights situation\u00a0in the Philippines remains a factor of concern for the European Union\u2019s (EU) decision to maintain or withdraw its trade privileges under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) with the island nation. This is what officials from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) told senators during a Senate committee [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights-news","category-international-institutions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6872"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6918,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6872\/revisions\/6918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}