Manila, March 24 -- The Philippines was able to utilize around 80 percent of its trade perks under the European Union's (EU) Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) in 2025, EU Ambassador to the Philippines Massimo Santoro said Tuesday.

"We went around 80 percent. It's a super high utilization rate by the Philippines of the current GSP+ that we have," he said at a Stratbase ADRI forum in Makati City.

"It is ending in 2027. So, this is why I was mentioning before the FTA (free trade agreement) that I'm very much hopeful that this is the right year (to conclude)," he added.

The GSP+ is an incentive scheme that grants the Philippines zero percent tariffs for almost 7,000 EU product lines provided that it complies with its obligation...