by Jun Virola, AFA
Quezon City, Philippines — Various civil society organizations (CSOs) from trade, farmers, labor, and other sectors held a caucus last August 13, 2008 at the Mandarin Oriental Suites in Cubao, Quezon City to get updates on the EU-ASEAN partnership negotiations, and to come up with recommendations and a common plan of action.
Sponsored by the Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (PhilDHRRA), Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (PAKISAMA), and the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), the caucus brought together resource persons from civil society and the government.
A presentation of the preliminary findings of the RP-EU research being conducted by the EU-ASEAN FTA Campaign Network was made by Riza Bernabe, Consultant of the EU-ASEAN FTA Campaign Network.
Atty. Golda Benjamin, International Trade and Globalization Unit Coordinator of IDEALS, on the other hand, gave a presentation on Europe’s negotiating mandate and partnership cooperation agreements.
From the government side, Arnel Sanchez, Special Assistant at the Office of Undersecretary for International Economic Relations of the DFA, shared the current state of EU-ASEAN FTA negotiations.
Updates on CSO Campaign Efforts were presented by Sammy Gamboa and Joseph Purruganan, from the Secretariat of the EU-ASEAN FTA Campaign Network.
Updates were also given by IDEALS on initial interventions by Philippine NGOs/POs and AFA on initial interventions by regional NGOs/Pos.
Esther Penunia, Secretary General of AFA, gave the synthesis of plans and action points.
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