Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be taken by the European Union within the Joint Committee established by the Euro-Mediterranean Interim Association Agreement on trade and cooperation between the European Community, of the one part, and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) for the benefit of the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, of the other part, on the amendment of Article 15(7) of Protocol No 3 to that Agreement concerning the definition of the concept of

The prohibition of drawback of customs duties is stipulated in Article 15 of Protocol No 3 annexed to the EC-PLO Association Agreement, as amended by Decision No 1/2009 of the EU-PLO Joint Committee of 24 June 2009. Paragraph 7 of that Article provides for a transitional period prior to the full application of the prohibition of drawback of duties by the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and allows this partner to grant duty drawback to its exporters or economic operators during this period. The transitional period expired on 31 December 2009. However, Article 15(7) provides for the possibility of re-examining this provision by common accord.

Further to a request from the PLO, in 2010 the Commission proposed extending the application period of this provision until 31 December 2012. However, the EU-PLO Joint Committee never adopted that decision. On 6 December 2012 the PLO requested in writing a further four-year extension of the application period of this provision. In accordance with Article 39 of Protocol No 3, the provisions of the Protocol may be amended by decision of the Joint Committee. The text of the decision will amend the existing provision laid down in Article 15(7).

The parties have agreed to extend by six years the application period of Article 15(7) with effect from 1 January 2010 in order to provide clarity, long-term economic predictability and legal certainty for economic operators, to ensure consistency with similar requests from other Mediterranean countries and to establish the period covered by the Commission proposal following the PLO's initial request. Pending formal adoption of the present decision, it was agreed, in the Pan-Euro-Med working group, that this decision will apply from 1 January 2010.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)728: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:728:FIN

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