Proposal for a Council Decision concluding an Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters between the European Union and the United States of America pursuant to Article XXIV:6 and Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 relating to the modification of concessions in the schedules of the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania in the course of their accession to the European Union

With the accession of the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania, the European Union enlarged its customs union. Consequently, the European Union was obliged under WTO rules (GATT Article XXIV:6) to enter into negotiations with WTO Members having negotiating rights in the schedules of any of the acceding Members in order to agree on compensatory adjustment.

Such adjustment is due if the adoption of the EU’s external tariff regime results in an increase in tariff beyond the level for which the acceding country has bound itself at the WTO, whilst taking ‘due account of reductions of duties on the same tariff line made by other constituents of the customs union upon its formation’.

On 29 January 2007, the Council authorised the Commission to open negotiations under Article XXIV:6 of GATT 1994. The Commission has negotiated with the Members of the WTO holding negotiating rights with respect to the withdrawal of specific concessions in relation to the withdrawal of the schedules of the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania, in the course of their accession to the European Union.

Negotiations with the United States of America resulted in a draft Agreement in the form of an Exchange of Letters that was initialled by the EU side on 21 December 2011 in Brussels and by the US side on 17 February in Washington D.C.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)346: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:346:FIN

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