Brussels, 10/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 9 December, the European Commission decided to guarantee 16 developing countries duty-free access to the EU market for around 6,400 tariff lines, as part of the European Union's GSP+ special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance. Thus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Georgia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Sri Lanka and Venezuela will, in addition to the standard Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), benefit from GSP+ status from 1 January 2009 until the end of 2011. The GSP+ system will provide these countries with a large reduction on Community customs duties compared with the simple GSP for products such as tobacco (cut by up to 52%), various fruit juices (up to 30%), fruit (up to 20%), vegetables (up to 14%), fish (up to 20%) and honey (up to 17%). GSP+ is offered to vulnerable developing countries that have ratified and effectively implemented 27 core UN and ILO (International Labour Organisation) conventions on human and labour rights, and other international conventions related to the environment and governance principles. The eligibility of El Salvador and Sri Lanka is currently under investigation by the European Commission into the implementation of certain UN and ILO conventions. The standard GSP provides preferences to 176 developing countries and territories on around 6400 tariff lines, while the Everything But Arms (EBA) arrangement provides duty-free, quota-free access for all products for the 50 least-developed countries on 7200 tariff lines. (E.H./transl.rt)