The European Parliament adopted by 545 votes to 37,
with 14 abstentions, a resolution on the implementation of the
Generalised Scheme Preferences (GSP) Regulation (EU) No
978/2012.
Background
The EU was the first to implement a GSP scheme in 1971
following the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD) recommendation under which industrialised countries would
grant generalised, non-reciprocal and non-discriminatory trade
preferences to developing countries, thereby assisting them to
generate additional revenue through international trade in an
effort to reduce poverty, promote good governance and foster
sustainable development.
The key objectives of the 2012 GSP reform were to
better focus on countries in need the LDCs and other low and
lower-income countries further promote the core principles
of sustainable development and good governance, enhance stability
and predictability, and improve certainty for business
operators.
As a reminder, the scheme contains three
arrangements:
- the general GSP scheme: currently 18 countries
benefit from reduced customs duties on 66 % of all EU product
categories;
- the GSP+ incentive
scheme: the eight GSP+ beneficiaries export around 66 % of all
product categories duty-free in return for their commitment to
effectively implement 27 international core conventions that cover
labour rights, human rights, good governance and environmental
concerns;
- the Everything But
Arms scheme (EBA): the 49 least developed countries (LDCs) under
the EBA arrangement of GSP are granted duty-free access to the EU
for all products, except arms and ammunition.
Conclusions
Parliament welcomed the fact that the new Regulation
has seen an increase in exports from beneficiaries of the
Everything But Arms (EBA) and GSP+ arrangements.
In 2016, EUR 62.6
billion worth of imports entered the EU under GSP preferences (a
rising tendency), broken down as follows: EUR 31.6 billion from
standard GSP beneficiaries, around EUR 7.5 billion from GSP+
beneficiaries and EUR 23.5 billion from EBA beneficiaries (Eurostat
data as of September 2017).
The resolution stated that the GSP+ plays an important
role in promoting international labour law, human rights, good
governance and environmental protection standards in the
beneficiary countries and that the GSP in economic terms benefits
the beneficiary countries and the European Union in economic
terms.
Main recommendations
Parliament emphasised, among other things, the
following points:
- raise awareness of
GSP rules in beneficiary countries and implement international
conventions and reforms to prevent GSP programmes from promoting
environmental and social dumping;
- ensure a
reinforced, systematic and continuous monitoring of the
implementation process through enhanced cooperation between all
parties in order to improve information gathering and in-depth
analysis by using all the available information and resources;
- explore other
options for structured, formal and independent participation of
civil society, trade unions and the private sector, which could
help strengthen the monitoring process;
- add the Paris Agreement to the list of 27 fundamental
international conventions that GSP+ beneficiary countries must
comply with;
- strengthen coordination with the European External
Action Service (EEAS), EU delegations, Member States' diplomatic
missions, governments of beneficiary countries, international
organisations, businesses, social partners and civil society, in
order to improve information gathering provide more in-depth
analysis of monitoring;
- maintain the current targeted approach for the
withdrawal of preferences and ensure that these withdrawals are
limited to specific sectors and are designed to minimise negative
effects on the local population; the withdrawal of trade
preferences should be considered as a measure of last
resort;
- use conditionality to preserve the credibility of the
mechanisms and ensure that action is taken in the event of severe
and systematic violations of international conventions;
- consider various measures to increase diversification
among beneficiaries. In this respect, the possibility of bring
together countries that have been excluded from the GSP scheme
should be reintroduced in the next GSP Regulation and ways should
be considered to include services in the next GSP
Regulation;
- create a favourable environment for women in business
as the GSP has contributed to womens economic empowerment and
promoted their participation in the labour market;
- invite beneficiaries to apply labour standards
effectively and the Commission to respond to violations of
International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards;
- provide measures to amplify the effect that the GSP
has had on adopting cleaner and safer technologies and on voluntary
corporate social responsibility initiative;
- explore the possibility of introducing additional
tariff preferences for products that have demonstrably been
produced sustainably.
Members recalled that the EU must encourage other
international players, such as multinationals, to participate fully
in improving respect for human rights, children's rights, social
rights, environmental rights and public health in the
world.