Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) No 19/2013 implementing the bilateral safeguard clause and the stabilisation mechanism for bananas of the Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Colombia and Peru, of the other part, and amending Regulation (EU) No 20/2013 implementing the bilateral safeguard clause and the stabilisation mechanism for bananas of the Agreement establishing an Association between the

Article 329 of the Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Colombia and Peru, of the other part provides for an accession possibility of other Member Countries of the Andean Community to the Agreement. The European Union and Ecuador concluded negotiations for such accession on 17 July 2014.

Similarly to the Agreement with Colombia and Peru, the Agreement with Ecuador includes a bilateral safeguard clause and a Stabilisation Mechanism for Bananas. The bilateral safeguard clause provides for the possibility to re-instate the MFN customs duty rate when, as a result of a trade liberalisation, imports take place in such increased quantities and under such conditions as to cause (or threaten to cause) serious injury to the Union Industry producing the like or directly competitive product. Preferential customs duties can be also be suspended according to the Stabilisation Mechanism for Bananas when a certain annual import volume is reached, until 31 December 2019.

The regulation incorporating in European Union law the safeguard clause and the stabilisation mechanism for Colombia and Peru should thus be amended in order to also include the corresponding elements in the case of Ecuador.

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)220: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:220:FIN

ESO: Background information: Relations between Peru and the European Union http://www.europeansources.info/record/relations-between-peru-and-the-european-union/

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