RECOMMENDATION on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the Union, of the Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America pursuant to[...]

DRAFT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION

on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the Union, of the Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America pursuant to Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 relating to the modification of concessions on all the tariff rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom`s withdrawal from the European Union (11723/2022 - C9-0007/2023 - 2022/0231(NLE))

(Consent)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the draft Council decision (11723/2022),

- having regard to Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America pursuant to Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 relating to the modification of concessions on all the tariff rate quotas included in the EU Schedule CLXXV as a consequence of the United Kingdom`s withdrawal from the European Union (11724/2022),

- having regard to the request for consent submitted by the Council in accordance with Articles 207(4), first subparagraph and Article 218(6), second subparagraph, point (a) (v) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (C9-0007/2023),

- having regard to Rule 105(1) and (4),and Rule 114(7) of its Rules of Procedure,

- having regard to the recommendation of the Committee on International Trade (A9-0042/2023),

1. Gives its consent to the conclusion of the agreement;

2. Instructs its President to forward its position to the Council, the Commission and the governments and parliaments of the Member States and of the United States of America.

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

In view of the United Kingdom's (UK) withdrawal from the European Union (EU), in October 2018, the EU formally launched negotiations under Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 with a number of Members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), including the United States of America (USA). The underlying principle of the negotiations is a "joint approach" developed between the EU and the UK 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 of this approach is that the existing volume of each TRQ would be fully maintained after the UK's withdrawal from the EU, 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 of the apportionment is described in detail in Regulation (EU) 2019/216 of the European Parliament and of the Council. More specifically, Article 2(b) of this Regulation empowers the Commission to amend the apportionment shares taking into account pertinent information that it may receive either in the context of negotiations under Article XXVIII of GATT 1994 or from other sources with an interest in a specific tariff rate quota.

For the majority of the TRQs where the USA is concerned, the apportioned volumes proposed by the EU were accepted by the USA. Changes in volumes have been agreed for some TRQs mostly to take into account a more recent reference period or avoid non-commercially viable volumes on the UK side. In addition, the EU27 share of the USA and Canada's country-specific beef TRQ will be revised and the in-quota rate for the erga omnes beef TRQ will be reduced.

Negotiations with the USA resulted in an Agreement that was initialled on 5 March 2021 in Geneva ("the Agreement"). The relevant Regulation (EU) 2019/216 of the European Parliament and Council and Commission Implementing Regulations (EU) 2020/761 and (EU) 2020/1988 will be amended to reflect these amended TRQ volumes. Consequently, the European Commission proposes to the Council to authorise the conclusion of the Agreement.

In accordance with Article 218(6) TFEU, the swift consent of the European Parliament is needed in order for the Council to adopt a decision concluding the Agreement and for the latter to come into force in due time.

In the light of the above, the Rapporteur recommends that the Parliament give its consent to the conclusion of the Agreement, without prejudice to its democratic right of continuous scrutiny.

PROCEDURE - COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

FINAL VOTE BY ROLL CALL IN COMMITTEE RESPONSIBLE

Key to symbols:

+ : in favour

- : against

0 : abstention