In a vote at the plenary session of the European Parliament on Tuesday 28 April, MEPs approved the revision of the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) for developing third countries, agreed with the Council of the European Union. It received broad support, with 459 votes in favour, 127 against and 70 abstentions.
However, the day before, several organisations had called for a review of the threshold for activating the safeguard clauses on rice contained in the agreement. A request also supported by Spain (see EUROPE 13857/11).
The interinstitutional agreement is validated. “It took four years to reach a compromise on this text. We have taken account of farmers’ concerns and introduced strong measures for rice producers. If we start new interinstitutional negotiations (trilogue) today, the safeguard mechanism risks losing clarity”, argued the Chair of the Committee on International Trade, Bernd Lange (S&D, German), ahead of the vote.
As a result, the agreement reached at the trilogue was maintained in its entirety, including the trigger threshold for rice in the event of an increase in imports of more than 45% compared to the previous year.
The European Commission has welcomed the revision of this system, described as a ‘pillar of EU trade policy’. The new GSP provides for reduced or zero customs duties for imports from 65 developing countries over the next decade, “thus contributing to poverty reduction and sustainable development”, the EU institution praises.
The revision also adds a number of international conventions relating to human rights and the environment, such as the Paris Agreement, to the list of international treaties that participating countries must ratify in order to benefit from trade preferences.
WTO compatibility in question. The new version also provides for the withdrawal of preferential customs duties from GSP beneficiary countries in the event of continued non-cooperation on the readmission of illegal migrants.
During the interinstitutional trilogue negotiations with the Council of the EU, the Parliament’s negotiators sought to limit the scope for withdrawing tariff preferences in the event of non-readmission (see EUROPE 13764/14).
However, this mechanism is criticised by ‘The Left’ Group. “Parliament’s vote on the GSP is a step backwards for human rights and a step backwards for sustainable development. [The relative clause] on the readmission of migrants to GSP beneficiary countries is not compatible with WTO rules and is a moral error that goes against the very spirit of the Generalised Scheme of Preferences”, says Lynn Boylan (The Left, Irish), shadow rapporteur on this issue.
Now that Parliament has given the green light, the text should apply from 1 January 2027. (Original version in French by Juliette Verdes)