Introduction

• Author: Development Solutions Europe Limited, Directorate-General for Trade (European Commission)
• Pages: 26-40

EUROPEAN COMMISSION

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1 Introduction

This section will provide an introduction to the Mid-Term Eval uation of the EU’s

Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) and its objectives in Section 1.1. It will

further provide an overview of the main tenets of the current GSP (Section 1.2), as well

as a review of the preliminary intervention hypothesis of the Regulation No. 978/2012

(Section 1.3). Lastly, the methodology an d approach to the Mid-Term Evaluation is

presented in Section 1.4.

1.1 The Mid-Term Evaluation of the EU’s GSP

On 2 May 2016, the Directorate General for Trade of the European Commission (DG

Trade) published an Evaluation and Fitness Check Roadmap 4 to a nnounce its mid-term

evaluation of Regulation (EU) No. 978/2012 on a scheme of generali sed tariff

preferences (‘the GSP Regulation’)5. The European Commission will present its findings

on the application of the GSP Regulation to the European Parliament and the Council,

which will be used to assess the need to review the GSP.

In order to support the GSP Evaluation, the European Commission mandated the Mid-

Term Eval uation of the GSP. The evi dence-based report th at will result from t his study

will provide relevant data that will feed into the European Commission’s Evaluation

Report. The goal of this study is to assess whether the objectives set by the GSP

Regulation are on t rack t o be achieved, on the basis of the results to date of th e EU’s

GSP in its current form during the period 2014-2016.

The general objectives of the Mid-Term Evaluation are to undertake an assessment of:

i. the economic, social, human rights and environmental impacts of the GSP;

ii. the present GSP’s effectiveness and efficiency in light of its objectives,

including costs and benefits;

iii. possible unintended consequences associated with the implementati on of the

present GSP;

iv. the relevance of the scheme with respect to the developmental and other

needs of developing countries, and in particular, of LDCs;

v. the scheme’s coherence with EU foreign, trade and devel opment policy and

other relevant policies;

vi. the potential for regulatory simplification and burden reduction both for the

EU and the beneficiary countries; and

vii. possible infringements and abuses of the GSP System.

It seeks to examine the impact across the three different GSP arrangements, namely:

the general arrangement (commonly r eferred to as the ‘Standard GSP’ arrangement);

the special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance

(commonly referred to as the ‘ GSP+’ arrangement); and the special incentive for least

developed countries (commonly referred to as the ‘Everything But Arms’ or EBA

arrangement).

The Mid-Term Evaluation was launched i n November 2016 followi ng the kick-off meeting

in Brussels, Belgium. In the Inception Phase of the project, several preparatory and

research activities were conducted, including a preliminary literature review, the

4 European Commission. (2016). Roadmap: Interim Evaluation of the Regulation (EU) No. 978/2012 on a

scheme of generalised tariff preferences (GSP Regulation). Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/smart-

regulation/roadmaps/docs/2016_trade_021_evaluation_gps_regulation_en.pdf

5 Regulation (EU) No. 978/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 applying a

scheme of generalised tariff preferences and repealing Council Regulation (EC) no. 732/2008, available at:

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2012/october/tradoc_150025.pdf