Council Decision (EU) 2023/912 of 25 April 2023 on the conclusion, on behalf of the Union, of the Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America pursuant to Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 relating to the modification of concessions on all the tariff rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union

What it is

to conclude, on behalf of the European Union, the Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America relating to the modification of concessions on all the tariff rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom`s withdrawal from the European Union. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Council may adopt the act only if Parliament has given its consent to the act. BACKGROUND: in October 2018, the EU formally launched the negotiations process (under Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994) with a number of WTO Members in Geneva. The underlying principle of the negotiations is a ‘joint approach’ developed between the EU and the UK back in 2017 on how to ‘apportion’ the quantitative commitments contained in the EU28 WTO schedule for the 143 EU agricultural, fish and industrial WTO tariff rate quotas (TRQs). The principle of the applied methodology is based on the trade flows into the EU27 and the UK during a representative reference period (of 3 years from 2013 to 2015) for all WTO TRQs. The agreed methodology of the apportionment is described in detail in Regulation (EU) 2019/216 of the European Parliament and of the Council. BACKGROUND: the Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America pursuant to Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 relating to the modification of concessions on all the tariff rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union was signed on behalf of the Union subject to its conclusion at a later date. CONTENT: the Council’s draft aims to approve the Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America pursuant to Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 relating to the modification of concessions on all the tariff rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union. The Committee on International Trade adopted the report by Bernd LANGE (S&D, DE) on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the Union, of the Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America pursuant to Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 relating to the modification of concessions on all the tariff rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom`s withdrawal from the European Union. The committee responsible recommended that the European Parliament give its consent to the conclusion of the agreement. As a reminder, in October 2018, in the run up to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the EU formally launched the negotiations process (under Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994) with a number of WTO Members in Geneva. The underlying principle of the negotiations is a ‘joint approach’ developed between the EU and the UK back in 2017 on how to ‘apportion’ the quantitative commitments contained in the EU28 WTO schedule for the 143 EU agricultural, fish and industrial WTO tariff rate…

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