On the draft Council decision on the accession of Vanuatu to the Interim Partnership Agreement between the European Community, of the one part, and the Pacific States, of the other part

The accession of Vanuatu to the interim EPA between the EU, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Solomon Islands, which is an asymmetric and WTO-compatible trade agreement, reinforces the legal framework of the EU trade relations with Pacific partner countries and facilitates reciprocal trade. It also incorporates Vanuatu into the regime of joint rules and institutions established by the interim EPA.

Following Vanuatu’s classification by the World Bank as an upper middle-income country, the country will be removed from the list of Everything But Arms (EBA) beneficiary countries under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP), and will no longer benefit from the tariff preferences (duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market) provided under the special arrangement EBA for the least-developed countries as of 1 January 2025.

Your rapporteur supports the economic integration of the Pacific States and welcomes the accession of Vanuatu’s to the iEPA as this will be beneficial for the region as well as for trade relations with the European Union.

The rapporteur declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not include in his report input from interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register, or from representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies, to be listed in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.