Almost 100 countries to lose tariff breaks for plastics exports to European Union under a planned reform

13-May-11

Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Russia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Iran are among almost 100 countries expected to lose tariff breaks for their plastics exports to the European Union (EU), under a planned reform of the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) system, as per Plastics and Rubber Weekly. The European Commission announced that it wanted to focus import duty concessions on poorer countries and so henceforth those regarded by the World Bank as high or upper middle income states would no longer qualify from January 2014. There would also be formal losses of GSP status for Mexico, South Africa, Turkey, Chile and Algeria, but these countries (and others – especially many neighbouring the EU) already have good market access through free trade and association agreements. Changes have also been announced to the EU’s GSP+ system which offers even better market access, underlining the need for beneficiary countries to follow international sustainable development and good governance conventions (including human rights) and to have vulnerable economies.