BRUSSELS, — The Council of the European Union and the European Parliament have struck a provisional agreement to revise the bloc’s Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP), linking preferential trade access for developing nations to stronger commitments on human rights, environmental protection, and, for the first time, cooperation on the return of their citizens illegally present in the EU.
The deal, reached late Monday, reinforces the EU’s GSP framework, which grants reduced or zero tariffs on exports from vulnerable developing countries. The new legislation is set to apply from Jan. 1, 2027.
Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, expressed satisfaction with the outcome.
“I am satisfied that Europe with this agreement strengthens our support to developing countries through trade and preferential access to the single market,” Rasmussen said in a statement on Monday.
“This is not a trivial accomplishment in a world of rapid change. At the same time, we make it clear that these trade benefits must be linked to the respect for human rights, good governance, environmental protection and for the first time, cooperation on return of own nationals illegally present in EU.”
New Migration Link
A key addition to the scheme is the provision allowing the withdrawal of GSP preferences if a beneficiary country fails to cooperate with the EU on the readmission of its own nationals who are in the bloc illegally. The European Commission will be tasked with monitoring compliance and will have the authority to act, while keeping the Parliament and Council informed of any decisions.
Strengthened Sustainability and Oversight
The revised framework maintains the three existing strands of support: Standard GSP, GSP+ (for strong sustainability standards), and Everything But Arms (EBA) for the world’s least developed countries. However, it introduces several improvements:
Human Rights and Labor: More international conventions on human and labor rights must be respected to qualify for GSP. A new urgency procedure will allow for the rapid withdrawal of preferences in cases of serious violations.
“Greener GSP”: The EU can now withdraw benefits for serious and systematic violations of international conventions on climate change and environmental protection.
Transparency: Monitoring and implementation of GSP+ commitments will be improved through increased transparency and participation of relevant stakeholders.
Market Safeguards
The agreement also includes mechanisms to protect EU producers from sudden import surges. These provisions allow for the reintroduction of duties if imports from a beneficiary country rise significantly enough to cause serious disturbances.
A specific automatic safeguard mechanism has been introduced for rice imports, using a tariff rate quota system. This measure will subject surging rice imports above historical averages to the EU’s Most Favored Nation (MFN) tariffs for a specific period.
Safeguard measures targeting textiles and ethanol imports will apply to GSP and GSP+ countries, but not to EBA beneficiaries, with clear thresholds set for when they can be triggered.
The provisional agreement now requires formal endorsement by both the Council and the Parliament before final adoption.
