Proposal for a Council Decision establishing the position to be taken by the European Union within the General Council of the World Trade Organization on the United States’ request for a WTO waiver to extend and expand the scope of the US Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA)

The objective of this proposal is to establish the position to be taken by the European Union within the General Council of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the United States’ request for a WTO waiver to extend and expand the scope of the United States Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA) to the extent necessary to permit the United States to provide duty-free treatment to eligible products originating in beneficiary Central American and Caribbean countries and territories from 1 January 2015 until 31 December 2019.

The United States justifies its request with the exceptional circumstances of the economic situation in the Caribbean Basin countries. The objective of the amended CBERA is to assist the trade and economic development and recovery of these countries by encouraging the expansion of their productive capacity in response to more liberal access and to new trading opportunities.

According to the United States, the duty-free treatment provided under CBERA should not prejudice the interests of other Members not benefiting from such treatment, and it is expected that the extension of such duty-free treatment will not cause a significant diversion of United States imports of products eligible under CBERA originating in Members who are not beneficiary countries.

For the EU, the waiver request does not pose economic concerns since the duty-free treatment does not have an impact on the EU trade with the beneficiary countries.

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)33: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:033:FIN

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