Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

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| EVALUATION ROADMAP | |
| Roadmaps aim to inform citizens and stakeholders about the Commission's work to allow them to provide feedback and to participate effectively in future consultation activities. Citizens and stakeholders are in particular invited to provide views on the Commission's understanding of the problem and possible solutions and to share any relevant information that they may have. | |
| Title of the evaluation | Evaluation of the EU-Colombia/Ecuador/Peru Trade Agreement |
| Lead DG – responsible unit | Directorate General for Trade, Unit TRADE.C.3, Latin America |
| Indicative Planning  (planned start date and completion date) | Start date : Q1-Q2 2019  Completion date: Q3-Q4 2020 |
| Additional Information | Insert link to the specific website for the evaluation or website covering the policy area (if there is none, put: – in the field).  - |
| The Roadmap is provided for information purposes only. It does not prejudge the final decision of the Commission on whether this initiative will be pursued or on its final content. All elements of the initiative described by the document, including its timing, are subject to change. | |

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| A. Context, purpose and scope of the evaluation |
| Context [max 15 lines] |
| The European Union-Colombia/Peru/Ecuador Trade Agreement [I](#endnote2) , [II](#endnote3)  (hereafter the “Agreement”) aims at opening up markets on both sides, increasing the stability and predictability of the trade and investment environment and promoting sustainable development. The Agreement has been applied since 1 March 2013 with Peru, 1 August 2013 with Colombia and 1 January 2017 with Ecuador. Given that Ecuador joined the Agreement on 1 January 2017, the assessment will be more limited taking into account that the period covered will be shorter than for Colombia and Peru and that few data will therefore be available.    It is one of the first of a new generation of EU free trade agreements (FTAs), characterised by its comprehensive nature and high level of ambition. The Agreement covers elimination of tariffs on trade in goods, a reduction of non-tariff barriers to trade in goods, services and investment (market access), and provisions on competition, government procurement, protection of intellectual property rights, transparency in regulation, while integrating the objective of sustainable development in all those areas.    The rationale for the present evaluation stems in part from various provisions in the Agreement which invite the Parties to evaluate its impact on trade on certain stakeholders (in particular SMEs); or on certain areas (such as labour and environment) (Articles 13(1)bis, Article 13(3), Article 279, Article 280(6)(d) and Article 286(a)). The scope of this evaluation is, however, broader covering the whole scope of the Agreement that is currently provisionally applied.    The findings of the evaluation will be relevant to the ongoing implementation of the Agreement and may be used as a basis for the discussions with the partner countries on lessons to be drawn for its implementation. It is also important to evaluate the Agreement after five years, as the lessons learnt from its current implementation could serve as a basis for improving the design of EU FTAs being negotiated with other third countries; and could provide valuable input for the implementation of FTAs that have been recently concluded. |
| Purpose and scope [max 15 lines] |
| The purpose of the evaluation is to provide an evidence-based report assessing the impact of the implementation of the Agreement. The evaluation comes five years after the implementation of the Agreement with Colombia and Peru and two years after its implementation with Ecuador.  The evaluation will assess on a quantitative and qualitative basis the effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, coherence and impact of the Agreement. The evaluation will enable the Parties to the Agreement to better understand the progress made and the challenges remaining in the operation of the Agreement.    The geographical scope of the evaluation will be the whole EU, as well as Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. The evaluation period starts from the respective date of the start of the provisional application of the Agreement for each Andean country.  Thematically, the evaluation will cover all areas of the Agreement, except for those which are not yet applied pending the ratification by all Member States and the final conclusion of the Agreement. The evaluation will therefore not cover the following articles: Article 2 (Disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction), Article 202(1) (provisions on Intellectual Property Rights), Article 291 (administrative proceedings) and Article 292 (review and appeal).  The evaluation will assess the overall impact of the various elements of the Agreement in terms of trade and economic impacts, social impacts, impact on labour and human rights, and environmental impacts.  The evaluation will consider the level of liberalization achieved. For trade in goods the evaluation will take into account in particular the fact that elimination of customs duties is progressive. Full liberalization will be achieved over 10 years for certain exports from Colombia, Peru and Ecuador; and over a somewhat longer period (up to 17 years) for certain EU exports to those countries. Considering that the three Andean countries enjoyed preferential access to the EU through the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) prior to the provisional application of the Agreement, the evaluation shall examine data not only compared to GSP+ but compared to MFN duties, in order to capture the impact of the implementation of the Agreement. |
| B. Better regulation |
| Consultation of citizens and stakeholders [max 10 lines] |
| The overall objective of the stakeholder consultation is to ensure that all relevant parties have an opportunity to express their views on:  ·the effectiveness of the Agreement, to promote trade and investment and to contribute to sustainable development (including economic, social, human rights, and environmental dimensions);  ·its efficiency in relation to the resources used (including the existence of unnecessary costs and legal complexities in relation to achievement of the objectives);  ·its relevance with respect to the current trade and economic needs and challenges facing the EU, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador;  ·and its coherence with the objectives of the EU trade and other external policies.  In particular, the consultation process will seek to obtain concrete examples, evidence and experiences that can complement the quantitative analysis. The aim is to gather material that will illustrate particular opportunities and challenges resulting from the Agreement. The consultations represent a chance to hear from all concerned stakeholders about where we need to focus our attention, and where more evidence and research is needed. A detailed consultation strategy will be prepared very early during the implementation of the evaluation.  The main stakeholders identified are as follows:  ·On EU side: public authorities at EU, member state and local level, the EU Delegations in Colombia, Peru and Ecuador, EU Chambers of Commerce in the respective countries, businesses and business associations, labour unions, non-governmental organisations, academia and the general public;    ·On Colombia, Peru and Ecuador side: public authorities at national, regional and municipal level, national investment promotion agencies; business and business associations, labour unions, non-governmental organisations, academia and the general public.    The main consultation activities will include the following:  oA Civil Society Dialogue in Brussels (second or third quarter of 2019);  oA 12-week online public consultation open to stakeholders within the EU and in the partner countries will be launched in the third or fourth quarter of 2019, accessible via the Commission's central public publications page. The questionnaire will be in English, French, German and Spanish, while replies can be made in any of the 24 official EU languages.  oA targeted online survey intended for business users/interests, including those of SMEs. It will also be launched in the third or fourth quarter of 2019.    oA series of interviews, roundtables or workshops gathering relevant actors from public sector, business, and civil society, in the three Andean countries as well as some EU Member States (second half of 2019);  oInterviews with SMEs possibly in some selected sectors in the three Andean countries and the EU, to capture their particular experiences.  A synopsis report summarising the results of the consultation activities will be published on the consultation website once all consultation activities are closed. |
| Data collection and methodology [max 10 lines] |
| In terms of data and methodology, the evaluation will build on previous studies such as: the Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) “EU-Andean Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment” of October 2009; the economic impact studies “Assessing the Economic Impact of the Trade Agreement Between the European Union and Signatory Countries of the Andean Community (Colombia and Peru)” of July 2012, and “Assessing the economic impact of the Trade Agreement between the European Union and Ecuador” of June 2016; the four annual reports of implementation of the Agreement issued so far; and relevant research published by third parties.  An external study will be commissioned as input into the evaluation. The selected contractor will employ a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. An appropriate quantitative model will be applied to estimate outcomes and impact of the Agreement, using macro- and micro-economic data.  Most data needed for the evaluation is available from EUROSTAT and COMTRADE, as well as other databases. Qualitative data will be gathered through consultations, workshops, surveys and interviews.  Case studies will respond to gaps in economic data availability, and will help to make sense of the results of the quantitative analysis. Case studies for selected sectors, products, cross-sectoral or thematic issues will provide an in-depth look at economic, social, human rights (including labour rights) and environmental impacts and serve to identify enablers and bottlenecks towards achieving the objectives of the Agreement.  The evaluation will examine whether and to what extent the potential impacts as foreseen in the SIA have occurred. In particular, it will assess the extent to which the Agreement has contributed to sustainable development in all its dimensions - economic, social (including human rights) and environmental. |

:   [(I)](#endnoteref2)

    Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and the Colombia and Peru , of the other part, published in the Official Journal of the European Union L 354 of 21 December 2012, and to be found at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L:2012:354:FULL&from=EN
:   [(II)](#endnoteref3)

    Protocol of Accession to the Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Colombia and Peru, of the other part, to take account of the accession of Ecuador published in the Official Journal of the European Union L 356 of 24 December 2016, and to be found at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=OJ:L:2016:356:FULL&from=EN

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