ANNOUNCEMENT 17 Apr 2015
In April 2015, the European Commission announced a change in import duties.NUMBER OF INTERVENTIONS
1
SOURCE
EC regulation 602/2015
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2015.100.01.0008.01.ENG
EC regulation 978/2012
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2012.303.01.0001.01.ENG
On 17 April 2015, the European Commission changed through regulation 602/2015 its eligibility criteria for its Generalised Scheme of Preferences (hereinafter: GSP), thereby amending regulation 978/2012.
Prior to this amendment, "vulnerable countries" were eligible to tariff preferences "under the special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance" if "the imports of products listed in Annex IX 'of the regulation' into the Union represent less than the threshold of 2 % in value of the total imports into the Union of products listed in that Annex originating in countries listed in Annex II, as an average during the last three consecutive years."
With regulation 602/2015 (written on 9 February 2015 but shall apply from 1 January 2015), this threshold was increased to 6.5%, thus expanding the range of countries and tariff lines potentially eligible to the tariff preferences.