Since 2001, under its
"Everything But Arms" (EBA) arrangement, the EU
has been granting all least developed countries (LDC)
duty free access to the EU market for all their
exports (except arms and ammunitions) with some
limited transitional restrictions for sugar and
rice. These remaining duty free quotas have been
progressively expanded every year since 2001 and
have lapsed completely on 31st August 2009 and 30
September 2009 respectively. All imports of rice
and sugar originating in LDCs are therefore now
fully liberalised.
From 1st October 2009
onwards, the EBA will thus grant full 100%
duty-free and quota-free market access for all
products from all LDCs (except for the imports of
arms and ammunitions).
The EU Heads of State and
Government at their informal meeting of 17
September 2009 invited the G-20 to adopt the EBA
initiative without delay in order to support
people in developing countries suffering from the
crisis.
Background:
The EU's EBA arrangement is
incorporated into the Council Regulation (EC) No
732/2008 on the Community's scheme of generalised
preferences (GSP). EBA is not time-limited and
applies to all LDCs as designated by the UN:
http://www.unohrlls.org/en/ldc/related/62/
The EU's EBA initiative was
a particular response to the Brussels Plan of
Action for LDCs, adopted at the 3rd UN Conference
for LDCs in Brussels in May 2001. The objective of
the initiative is to facilitate the integration of
LDCs in the world economy and in international
trade.
When the EBA arrangement
entered into force in 2001, transitional
provisions were established for the imports of
bananas, rice and sugar, which allowed for duty
free import of these products under a gradually
expanding quota regime. For bananas, the quota
regime ended already end 2006. From 1st October
2009, the quota restrictions for the two remaining
products, sugar and rice, have also been fully
liberalised.
Total imports under EBA have
gradually increased to reach € 5.8 billion in
2008. The rough value of the preferences for 2008
provided (in terms of nominal duty loss if the
same products had been imported and duties paid
under the EU's standard MFN tariff rate) can be
estimated at €657 million.
The 'Import Tariffs' section
of the Export Helpdesk reflects these recent
changes following the end of these quotas.
More info on the EBA:
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/global/gsp/eba/index_en.htm
