The Committee on International Trade adopted the report by Inmaculada RODRÍGUEZ-PIÑERO FERNÁNDEZ (S&D, ES) on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Protocol (2015) amending the Annex to the Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft.
The committee recommended the European Parliament to give its consent to the conclusion of the Protocol.
As a reminder, the Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft (ATCA), which was signed by 32 parties and entered into force in 1980, eliminates import duties on all aircraft, other than military aircraft, as well as on all other products covered by the agreement - civil aircraft, all components and sub-assemblies of civil aircraft, and flight simulators.
The Agreement contains a product coverage Annex which lists the products that shall be accorded duty-free treatment. Products in the Annex are classified according to their respective tariff headings under the harmonized system. Since the adoption of the ATCA, different versions of the harmonized system have been adopted, in particular in 2007. Therefore, in November 2015, the Civil Aircraft Committee adopted a protocol amending this Annex of the Agreement, in order to transpose the changes introduced in the 2007 version of the harmonized system.