ACP countries may lose duty-free status

25 November 2011

Regulation 1528/2007, the Market Access Regulation, allows exports from 36 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to enter the EU duty free and quota free. This Regulation was conceived as a temporary arrangement while the ACP countries finalised Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the EU. The European Commission has now decided to withdraw the Market Access Regulation for the countries that have not taken the necessary steps towards ratifying their EPAs.

Eighteen countries have completed the EPAs, whereas the remaining 18 have not signed their agreement or have signed but are not implementing it. The Commission proposes to give these counrties until January 2014 to implement their EPAs or to engage in alternative preferential arrangements.

The "EC Proposal amending Annex I to Council Regulation (EC) No 1528/2007 as regards the exclusion of a number of countries from the list of regions or states which have concluded negotiations" is available here: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0598:FIN:EN:PDF

See also this press release from the European Commission: http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2011/september/tradoc_148215.pdf