The Committee on International Trade adopted the report by André ROUGÉ (ID, FR) on the draft Council decision on the accession of Solomon Islands to the Interim Partnership Agreement between the European Community, of the one part, and the Pacific States, of the other part.
The committee recommended that the European Parliament give its consent to Solomon Islands' accession to the agreement.
The draft Council Decision implements the Partnership Agreement between the members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, of the one part, and the European Community and its Member States, of the other part, signed in Cotonou on 23 June 2000.
On 30 July 2009, the EU signed the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Community, on the one hand, and the Pacific States, on the other. The EPA has been provisionally applied by the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, the Republic of Fiji and the Independent State of Samoa since 20 December 2009, 28 July 2014 and 31 December 2018, respectively. It provides for the accession of other Pacific Island States.
The EPA is a development-oriented trade agreement, which offers asymmetric market access to Solomon Islands and allows it to shield sensitive sectors from liberalisation, while providing a large number of safeguards and a clause for infant industry protection. It further contains provisions on the rules of origin that facilitate Solomon Islands' exports into the EU and provisions on sustainable development.