PURPOSE: to ensure, as regards Equador, the effective application of the bilateral safeguard clause and the implementation of the stabilisation mechanism for bananas provided for in the Trade Agreement between the EU and Colombia and Peru.
LEGISLATIVE ACT: Regulation (EU) 2017/540 of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) No 19/2013 implementing the bilateral safeguard clause and the stabilisation mechanism for bananas of the Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Colombia and Peru, of the other part, and amending Regulation (EU) No 20/2013 implementing the bilateral safeguard clause and the stabilisation mechanism for bananas of the Agreement establishing an Association between the European Union and its Member States, on the one hand, and Central America on the other.
CONTENT: the Union and Ecuador concluded negotiations for the accession of Ecuador to the Agreement on 17 July 2014. The Protocol of Accession to the Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Colombia and Peru, of the other part, to take account of the accession of Ecuador was signed on 11 November 2016 and is being applied provisionally.
Directly derived from the text of the Agreement negotiated with Ecuador, this Regulation amends Regulation (EU) No 19/2013 and Regulation (EU) No 20/2013 in order to enable the implementation of the safeguard clause and the banana stabilisation mechanism of the Agreement already concluded with Ecuador.
With a view to increasing transparency, the Commission shall transmit to the European Parliament and the Council the relevant information on the trends in bananas and import statistics concerning the imports from the countries subject to the stabilisation mechanism and their relevant thresholds in order to anticipate import trends over the rest of the calendar year.
When import volumes reach 80 % of the trigger import volume for the application of the stabilisation mechanism for bananas, for one or more of the parties to the Agreement, the Commission shall formally alert the European Parliament and the Council in writing.
Upon request by the responsible committee of the European Parliament, the Commission shall report to it on any specific concerns relating to the implementation by Colombia, Ecuador or Peru of their commitments on trade and sustainable development.
If the European Parliament adopts a recommendation to initiate a safeguard investigation, the Commission shall examine whether the conditions for ex-officio initiation are fulfilled.
The Commission shall, by 1 January 2019, assess the situation of Union banana producers. If a serious deterioration in the state of the market or the situation of Union banana producers is found to have occurred, an extension in the period of validity of the mechanism may be considered.
The Commission shall continue to carry out regular analyses of the state of the market and the situation of Union banana producers after expiry of the stabilisation mechanism.
ENTRY INTO FORCE: 1.4.2017. The Regulation shall apply from 1.1.2017.