New GSP framework, sustainable development and good governance: a check of the principles.

The ProposalCOM(2021)579 will set up a new framework of the European generalized system of preference which is:

• part of EU common commercial policy (unilateral preferential origin treatment for goods originating from the eligibile countries): sustainable development and good goverance;
• consistent with with the analysis and perspective of the Commission Communication Trade Policy Review: An Open, Sustainable and Assertive Trade Policy of 18 February 2021;
• consistent with EU green agenda and UN suistainable goals;

The key stone of GSP is the  “conditionality”: a country should not benefit from preferential trade arrangements if it is acting in a way that is contrary to international standards and principles and thereby also to its own developmental needs.

The international framework is made by (among others):

1. the 1986 UN Declaration on the Right to Development;
2. the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development,
3. the 1998 International Labour Organisation (ILO) Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work;
4. the 2000 UN Millennium Declaration;
5. the 2002 Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development, the ILO Centenary;
6. Declaration for the Future of Work of 2019,
7. the Outcome Document of the UN Summit on Sustainable Development of 2015 “Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”;
8. the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights;
9. the Paris Agreement on Climate Change under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Finally, the import operations from GSP countries can impact on the AEO internal monitoring.