EU to change tariffs for developing countries

   The European Union is changing its trade duties for developing countries exporting goods to the EU, reducing the number of nations eligible for its Generalised System of Preferences from 177 to 90.
   On Jan. 1, those 90 countries will benefit from a “powerful tool for economic development by providing the world’s poorest countries with preferential access to the EU’s market of 500 million consumers,” according to a press release. The GSP reform was announced last year so companies can get accustomed to the new policies.
   The EU has also opened a new program for 67 countries formerly covered by the GSP guidelines, which gives the nations trade benefits that aren’t as all-encompassing as the previous program.
   The government has decided to remove 20 countries from the trade benefits programs altogether.
   “These countries are now high and upper-middle income countries, and their exports will now enter the EU with a normal tariff applicable to all other developed countries,” the government said in a statement.
   Countries still covered under the most duty-friendly provision of the GSP’s three-tiered system include 34 in Africa, nine in Asia, five in Australia and one in the Caribbean.
   Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Gabon, Libya, Malaysia, Palaum, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Belarus, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Brunei Darussalam, Macao, Uruguay, and Venezuela have been removed from the GSP program.