Considerations on COM(2024)338 - EU position in the Joint Committee EU-the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) for the benefit of the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and Gaza Strip as regards the amendment of Protocol 3 to that Agreement concerning the definition of the concept of 'originating products' and methods of administrative cooperation concerning the permeability between the Regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin and the Transitional rules of origin - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2024)338 - EU position in the Joint Committee EU-the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) for the benefit of the Palestinian ... |
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| document | COM(2024)338  |
| date | November 21, 2024 |
| (2) | Pursuant to Article 63 of the Agreement, the Joint Committee established under that Article (the ‘Joint Committee’) may take decisions in the cases provided for in the Agreement. Pursuant to Article 4 of Protocol 3 to the Agreement, the Joint Committee may decide to amend the provisions of that Protocol. |
| (3) | At its next meeting, the Joint Committee is to take a decision on an amendment of Protocol 3 to the Agreement. |
| (4) | It is appropriate to establish the position to be adopted on the Union’s behalf within the Joint Committee as the decision of the Joint Committee will have legal effects. |
| (5) | The Regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin (the ‘Convention’) was concluded by the Union by Council Decision 2013/94/EU (2) and entered into force in relation to the Union on 1 May 2012. By Decision (EU) 2019/2198 (3), the Council supported the amendment of the Convention providing for a new set of modernised and more flexible rules of origin (the ‘amendment of the Convention’). The amendment of the Convention will enter into force on 1 January 2025. |
| (6) | At the technical meeting held in Brussels on 5 February 2020, the majority of the Contracting Parties to the Convention agreed to implement an alternative set of rules of origin, based on the amendment of the Convention on a transitional, bilateral basis (the ‘Transitional rules’). The Transitional rules apply in parallel with the rules of the Convention, pending the entry into force of the amendment of the Convention. |
| (7) | The application of the Transitional rules ensures the adaptation of the trade flows and customs practices pending the entry into force of the amendment of the Convention. |
| (8) | Since 1 September 2021, a number of bilateral protocols on rules of origin among several Contracting Parties to the Convention (4) have entered into force, rendering the Transitional rules applicable. As regards the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) for the benefit of the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (‘Palestine’), Protocol 3 to the Agreement was replaced by a new Protocol 3 by Decision No 1/2021 of the EU-PLO Joint Committee (5). The Transitional rules are set out in Appendix A to that new Protocol 3. |
| (9) | The objective of the Transitional rules is to provide for less strict rules, making it easier for goods to qualify for preferential originating status. As the Transitional rules are, in general, less strict than those of the Convention, goods fulfilling the rules of origin set out in the Convention could also qualify as originating under the Transitional rules, with the exception of certain agricultural products classified under Chapters 2, 4 to 15 and 16 (except for processed fishery products) and Chapters 17 to 24 of the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System. The Transitional rules are applicable in parallel with the rules of origin set out in the Convention, thus creating two distinct zones of cumulation of origin. In that context, it can happen that goods fall under both sets of rules of origin simultaneously. According to the principle of permeability under Article 21(1), point (d), of Appendix A to Protocol 3 to the Agreement (‘permeability’), goods which have acquired originating status under one set of rules of origin can be also considered as originating under the other set of rules of origin. In order to facilitate the application of permeability between the Convention and the Transitional rules, Article 8 of Appendix A to Protocol 3 to the Agreement should be amended. |
| (10) | The position of the Union within the Joint Committee should therefore be based on the attached draft decision, |