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The
EU's top trade negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, said that he and
Philippine Trade Secretary María Cristina Aldeguer-Roque
structured the deal to grow the nearly 30 billion euros (around
$35 billion) of annual trade between the 27-nation EU and the
Southeast Asian nation of 115 million people.
“It also delivers stronger, more diversified supply chains at
the moment when resilience has become a strategic priority,”
Šefčovič said.
Trade is dominated by electronics, with the EU exporting
aircraft, pork and pharmaceuticals while importing
semiconductors, integrated circuits and industrial machinery
manufactured in the Philippines.
The Philippines is the third nation from the ASEAN bloc after
Vietnam and Singapore to sign a bilateral trade deal with the
EU. Negotiations are ongoing between the European Commission and
Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, while a larger free-trade
agreement is hoped for in the long term between ASEAN itself and
the EU.
“There is a bigger picture here too,” Šefčovič said. “This
agreement sends a clear signal that the EU is reinforcing its
engagement with the Indo-Pacific.”
The EU has sought growth and stability in new trade links from
Australia to Argentina as the bloc itself is beset by a
geopolitical maelstrom, including conflicts in the Middle East
and the war in Ukraine.
The EU also has been dealing with the need to explore
alternative energy sources, heightened tensions with the Trump
administration, officials from EU member states accusing Russia
of hybrid attacks, and China running a gargantuan trade
imbalance and a near-monopoly over critical mineral supplies.
The EU deal with the Philippines roughly tracks with the “
middle powers ” strategy laid out at the World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year by Canadian Prime Minister
Mark Carney. Last week, he was the guest of honor in the
European Parliament in Strasbourg at the annual State of the
European Union speech by European Commission President Ursula
von der Leyen.
She said then that the EU would forge a new kind of “ associated
membership ” for Canada.
“In this new world, we must urgently reimagine our
partnerships,” von der Leyen said during her speech.
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