Regulation (EU) No 374/2014 on the reduction or elimination of customs duties on goods originating in Ukraine

Ce que fait l'acte

to propose reductions or temporary eliminations of customs duties on goods originating in Ukraine. PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council. BACKGROUND: Ukraine is a priority partner country within the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and the Eastern Partnership. The European Union and Ukraine negotiated in 2007-2011 an Association Agreement, including a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), which was initialed by both parties in 2012. Under the provisions of the DCFTA, the European Union and Ukraine are to establish a free trade area over a transitional period of a maximum of 10 years starting from the entry into force of the Association Agreement. The Committee on International Trade adopted the report by Paweł ZALEWSKI (EPP, PL) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the reduction or elimination of customs duties on goods originating in Ukraine. The committee supported this legislative proposal without amendment and proposed that the Parliament endorse its position at first reading, taking over the Commission proposal, without further modification , given the urgency of the situation in Ukraine. Indeed, Ukraine has gone through dramatic political times in recent months and its new government needs strong and immediate European assistance to fight off external pressures and to overcome economic and financial hardships. Members considered that the proposal presents a number of concrete benefits. By reducing temporarily and unilaterally its trade barriers on the imports of Ukrainian goods into the EU to level agreed bilaterally in the EU-Ukraine Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), the proposal will help Ukrainian companies in increasing their exports' volumes and in diversifying their exports' destinations. The European Parliament adopted by 531 votes to 68, with 20 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the reduction or elimination of customs duties on goods originating in Ukraine. Parliament adopted its position at first reading following the ordinary legislative procedure. The amendments adopted in plenary are the result of an agreement negotiated between the European Parliament and the Council. Following the unprecedented events recently experienced by Ukraine and the political, economic and security challenges that the country is facing, the Regulation would unilaterally eliminate or suspend temporarily the trade barriers (customs duties, quotas or tariffs) in respect of imports from Ukraine into the Union, at a level bilaterally agreed by the two parties in the EU-Ukraine Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) negotiations. · remove 94.7% of EU tariffs currently charged on industrial goods imports from Ukraine and reduce them for the remaining handful of industrial goods; · remove EU tariffs on over 80% of Ukraine’s farm produce exports. However, the EU will restrict the amounts of…