01/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on Thursday, the European Commission and representatives of the US Administration initialled an agreement on a series of trade concessions from the EU to compensate the US for the rising cost of import tariffs following the accession of ten new EU Member States on 1 May 2004. Once ratified, the agreement will come into force in 2006. When the ten new Member States joined the EU, import tariffs for many products were lower than EU import tariffs and hence had to be adjusted to meet European Customs Union rules and import tariffs, making imports from outside the EU, including from the United States, more expensive. Washington requested compensation talks with the EU under Article 24 of the 1994 GATT agreement.