Brussels, 06/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - The next system of EU Generalised System of Preferences excludes high and upper middle income countries and exclusively focuses on the poorest countries.
The revised system of EU preferences on imports from developing countries will be introduced on 1 January 2014 and is already known. Following the adoption on 4 October by the Council, with the approval of the European Parliament given on 13 June last, the regulation amending the current system of EU Generalised Preferences (GSP) was adopted on 31 October. In an effort to make the system more efficient for countries most in need, the future GSP will focus on a reduced number of beneficiary countries, 89 in all, as opposed to the current 176. The new system will include Least Developed Countries as part of the Everything but Arms initiative and 40 low income or low average income countries, including major developing countries such as China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines. At the same time, countries that respect human rights, labour rights, and environmental agreements and continue along the path of good governance will also benefit from increased support.
Thirty-three 33 EU overseas countries and regions that already have their own regulation on access to the EU market will no longer benefit from the GSP. Similarly, 34 countries, which benefit from a trade regime with the EU that ensures cover that is almost the same as the GSP will also no longer benefit from the latter. This involves countries that have concluded a free trade agreement or are subject to autonomous regimes, such as the regulation on the application of systems introduced for countries that have an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) or special trade regime for Western Balkan countries. The second category includes countries from the Euro-Med zone, Cariforum countries, countries from eastern and southern Africa, countries connected through the regulation on market access within the context of the EPAs (Botswana, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Fiji, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Swaziland), in addition to South Africa, Mexico and Papua New Guinea. Finally, the new GSP excludes countries classified by the World Bank as high or upper middle income economies over the past three years on the basis of their gross national per capita income: the oil and gas countries of the Persian Gulf - Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Brunei, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar - in addition to Macao among the high-income countries; the emerging economies of Latin America - Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay - as well as Venezuela (which has significant oil resources), Russia and Kazakhstan (whose national income is boosted by the sale of energy products and raw materials), Gabon and Libya (which enjoy the benefits of oil and gas revenues), Belarus, Cuba, Malaysia and Palaos. Nonetheless, with the exception of overseas territories, all the countries excluded from the future GSP could be admitted if their trade regimes expire or their situation changes (downgraded by the World Bank to low-income countries).
The extension of cover (which is already very high) corresponds to 66% of tariff lines (91% if 25% other lines subject to zero tariffs are included) and preferential margins have been limited. Only 23 new tariff lines (mainly involving raw materials) will be covered by the post-2014 GSP.
In 2011, the value of imports benefiting from preferences under the GSP rose to €87 billion, almost 5% of all EU imports and 11% of all EU imports from developing countries.
The complete list of beneficiary countries or those excluded from the post-2014 GSP and new tariff lines covered was published in the EU Official Journal on 31 October 2012. (EH/trans/fl)