On 9 February 2017, the Official Journal published Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/217 of 5 December 2016 amending Annex II to Regulation (EU) No 978/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council applying a scheme of generalised tariff preferences. The criteria for granting tariff preferences under the general arrangement of the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) provide that a country that has been classified by the World Bank as a high-income or an upper-middle income country for three consecutive years, or a country that benefits from a preferential market access arrangement which provides the same tariff preferences as the GSP, or better, for substantially all trade, should not benefit from GSP. The list of GSP beneficiary countries is reviewed annually. If a country’s status changes, it is given time for an orderly adaption to the new status.
Tonga was classified by the World Bank as upper middle-income country in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Therefore, Tonga was removed from the list of GSP beneficiary countries as from 1 January 2017. In 2016, however, Tonga was classified by the World Bank as a lower middle-income country. Therefore, Tonga will be reinserted into the list with application from 1 January 2017.
The implementation of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), signed by the Union and Ukraine on 27 June 2014, as part of their broader Association Agreement, has been provisionally applied from 1 January 2016. As the DCFTA provides better tariff preferences as the GSP for substantially all trade, Ukraine is removed from the list of GSP beneficiary countries with application from 1 January 2018.
