A4-0262/98

Resolution on the Commission communication on the management of preferential tariff arrangements (COM(97)0402 - C4-0447/97)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Commission communication (COM(97)0402 - C4-0447/97),

- having regard to the conclusions of the Internal Market Council of 18 May 1998,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Development and Cooperation and the opinion of the Committee on External Economic Relations (A4-0262/98),

1. Emphasises the vital role played by the European Union's contractual and autonomous preferential tariff arrangements as instruments for the economic and social development of and promoting the beneficiary countries;

2. Considers that if these arrangements, which depart from the rules of international trade, are to be retained and to be effective in meeting their development targets, their implementation must be beyond reproach; condemns therefore in the most vigorous terms any fraudulent use of these arrangements and calls for every possible action to be taken to bring any shortcomings discovered in their operation to a speedy end;

3. Welcomes the increasing awareness within the European Union of the various forms of fraud, and notes the adoption in recent years of new legal instruments to allow the European Union, in coordination with its Member States, to act more effectively against it; calls for the continuation and intensification of this effort in the legislative and the administrative coordination fields;

4. Welcomes therefore the establishment within the Commission's unit for the coordination of fraud prevention (UCLAF) of a special section to deal with non-Community countries;

5. Points out that the European Union's internal anti-fraud effort has to be matched by a comparable external effort in its relations with countries enjoying preferential arrangements, by the adoption of new legal instruments designed to combat fraud;

6. Sees the need for an effective and deterrent system of penalties for beneficiary countries and their operators convicted of fraud, going as far as the withdrawal of preferences;

7. Welcomes in this connection the introduction in 1995 of a system of penalties in the Community's GSP; stresses with regret that it has been too little used, and calls for its scope and implementing provisions to be reviewed with a view to making effective use of it;

8. Calls for administrative and customs cooperation agreements with countries enjoying preferential arrangements to take proper account of the need to combat fraud, especially by setting out more clearly the respective rights and obligations of the European Union and its partner countries, by improving the Union's ability to conduct on-the-spot checks and by providing for effective penalties;

9. Calls therefore on the Commission to submit proposals aimed at ensuring that liability is fairly apportioned in cases where, as a result of proven irregularities committed by the authorities of the beneficiary countries of which they could not reasonably have been expected to have any knowledge, European Union importers are penalised for making use of preferential tariff arrangements;

10. Draws attention to the need to improve fraud-detection systems as close to the source as possible, i.e. in the beneficiary countries; considers that the Commission delegations have an important preventive, detection and deterrent role to play here, in cooperation with the representatives of the Member States;

11. Points out that the more efficient use of the preferential arrangements, especially the GSP, largely depends on the security offered to economic operators in their implementation; considers that the risks incurred should not be borne exclusively by European Union operators;

12. Calls on the Commission to make proposals for protecting European economic operators who suffer losses in using the preferential tariff arrangements due to irregularities in the decisions of authorities in the beneficiary countries with which they cannot reasonably be expected to be familiar;

13. Welcomes the recent introduction of the new 'binding origin information' procedure, which should give European operators greater security when using the preferential arrangements; calls on the Commission to assess this procedure in practice to ascertain whether it is actually attaining this objective;

14. Draws attention to the need to review the conditions governing the application and operation of the early-warning system where there is justified doubt regarding origin, in order to make it more effective on behalf of European operators, especially by forwarding data before an investigation is launched; calls on the Commission to take appropriate action to prevent transshipments of products from countries excluded from the scheme from taking place in the beneficiary countries;

15. Stresses the urgent need to revise and ease the rules on origin; stresses the need for a new approach to derogations, to make regional cumulation generally applicable allowing the provisions concerning the geographical origin of products to be broadened in full knowledge of the facts and for greater harmonisation of the rules at both European Union and international level; calls on the Commission to submit specific proposals in this field at the earliest opportunity;

16. Draws attention to the especially vulnerable and unsatisfactory situation of the least-developed countries regarding the operation of the European Union's preferential arrangements and the application of the rules of origin; calls for the access of the least-developed countries to the market of the European Union to be improved; for example, any revision of the current arrangements must take particular account of their specific needs and constraints with a view to enabling them to draw greater benefit from Community tariff preferences;

17. Stresses the need to improve the supply of information to all operators affected on the implementation of the preferential arrangements and in particular to help the administrations of the beneficiary countries to manage the preferential arrangements more effectively and as part of intensified anti-fraud cooperation with the European Union;

18. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and the Council.