Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2011)598 - Amendment of Regulation 1528/2007 as regards the exclusion of a number of ACP countries that were granted duty-free, quota-free access to the EU market - Main contents
Please note
This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2011)598 - Amendment of Regulation 1528/2007 as regards the exclusion of a number of ACP countries that were granted duty-free, ... |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2011)598  |
| date | 30-09-2011 |
After the negotiation process of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with the ACP regions which started in 2002 and was concluded in December of 2007, a number of countries have neither taken the necessary steps towards ratification of an EPA nor concluded comprehensive regional negotiations.
In particular, the Republic of Burundi, the Union of the Comoros, the Republic of Ghana, the Republic of Kenya, the Republic of Namibia, the Republic of Rwanda, the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republic of Uganda, the Republic of Zambia, have concluded negotiations but have not signed their respective Agreements.
The Republic of Botswana, the Republic of Cameroon, the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, the Republic of the Fiji Islands, the Republic of Haiti, the Kingdom of Lesotho, the Republic of Mozambique, the Kingdom of Swaziland, and the Republic of Zimbabwe have signed but have not taken the necessary steps towards ratification of their respective Agreements.
Therefore, these countries no longer meet the conditions of the Market Access Regulation for advance provisional application of trade preferences which were extended to them as of 1 January 2008 in anticipation of the steps towards ratification of an EPA. According to the criteria set out in Article 2(3) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1528/2007 of 20 December 2007, trade preferences granted to these countries should no longer be maintained. The attached proposal is intended to amend the list of countries that benefit from the preferences (Annex I of Council Regulation (EC) No 1528/2007) by removing those which have still not taken the necessary steps towards ratification of an EPA. The Commission will continue to work with a view to ensuring that these countries become a contracting party to an EPA, and will use to the full the recent momentum of different negotiations to create a sustainable long term trade regime with these partners in keeping with the EPA negotiating directives and the priorities set out in the Cotonou Agreement.
The Commission has informed the Council, the European Parliament, the ACP Group of States and civil society that the current situation is not sustainable, as duty-free quota-free market access is still granted to beneficiary countries which are not taking the necessary steps towards ratification of the agreements on which this access is based, thus removing the justification for its advance provisional application.
Should the countries removed from Annex I take the necessary steps towards ratification of an EPA, they would continue to benefit from the respective trade preferences and could therefore be re-instated in the Annex as soon as possible in order to provide continuity of their market access. To this end the Commission should be empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 290 of the TFEU for the purpose of amending Annex I in order to reinstate these countries.