Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

In October 2018, the EU formally launched the negotiations process under Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) of 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 basis is that the existing volume of each TRQ would be fully maintained in the future, but split across two separate customs territories: the EU27 and the UK.

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 is described in detail in Regulation (EU) 2019/216. More specifically, Article 2b) empowers the Commission to amend the apportionment shares taking into account pertinent information that it may receive in the context of negotiations under Article XXVIII of GATT 1994 or from other sources with an interest in a specific TRQ.

On 15 June 2018, the Council authorised the Commission to launch negotiations under Article XXVIII GATT with the relevant WTO Members for apportioning the Union's WTO concessions on TRQs.

The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has negotiating rights for one TRQ (for tariff item number 1006 20 only) and consultation rights for five TRQs.

For the husked (brown) rice TRQ, where Pakistan has negotiating rights, the original EU proposed apportioned volume was accepted by Pakistan. The European Union explicitly recognises that Pakistan has initial negotiating rights (INR) with respect to the concessions on tariff item number 1006 20, in accordance with the relevant provisions of Article XXVIII of the GATT 1994.

The agreement with Pakistan is made in accordance with the EU-UK “joint approach” of maintaining the existing overall EU28 TRQ volumes split into two separate customs territories in the future.

Negotiations with Pakistan resulted in an Agreement that was initialled on 25 January 2021 in Geneva. Since then, administrative issues on the side of Pakistan have entailed a significant delay in the conclusion of the file and in the referral from the Council which was not received by the EP within the previous legislature. The Agreement was eventually signed on 3 February 2026 and the Council referral arrived in the EP on 5 February 2026.

In accordance with Article 218(6) TFEU, the consent of the European Parliament is needed in order for the Council to adopt a decision concluding the Agreement.

In the light of the above, the Rapporteur recommends that the Parliament give its consent to the conclusion of the Agreement.