the philippines trade restrictions on imports of meat in november 2019 the european union raised a concern regarding the philippines country-wide bans on imports of meat products from nine eu member states on grounds of asf which were not based on oie standards or on regionalization principles. the european union remarked that one of the eu member state affected by the ban germany had never had an outbreak of asf on its territory and another the czech republic had been free from asf since more than a year and a half. the philippines suspension of import of all meat products from germany was a disproportionate and unjustified reaction and bans of imports of pork meat from the other eu member states lacked scientific justification and went against the principle of regionalization. hence the measures were inconsistent with article 2.2 as well as article 6 of the sps agreement. the european union regretted that the said measures imposing bans continued despite the transparency of regionalization measures put in place by eu member states in compliance with oie recommendations and provision of all necessary evidence to the philippines to demonstrate that the eu measures would guarantee continuation of safe trade. the philippines replied that its measures were based on oie guidelines for regionalization. the philippines explained that the measure to restrict imports of meat from countries with asf outbreaks was a provisional precautionary measure based on available pertinent information consistent with article 5.7 of the sps agreement. the philippines had been receptive to technical information provided by the european union and had continuously been seeking to obtain additional information that was necessary to review the provisional measure. in determining areas free of the disease as stipulated under article 6.1 of the sps agreement it considered the effectiveness of controls. the effectiveness of the interventions must be supported by convincing evidence of disease contraction or elimination which would build the confidence of the philippines in eu control measures. however the validated reports from the european union showed alarming dispersion. in 2018-2019 four of nine inspection missions relevant to approval procedures had been for eu member states. comparing the january-september period for 2018-2019 philippine meat imports had decreased slightly. finally the philippines welcomed continued consultations with the european union to further discuss the matter.