EC/Pacific States Interim Partnership Agreement: accession of Vanuatu

The European Parliament adopted by 528 votes to 89, with 48 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the draft Council decision to on the accession of Vanuatu the Interim Partnership Agreement between the European Community, of the one part, and the Pacific States, of the other part.

Parliament gave its consent to the accession of Vanuatu to the Agreement.

The accession of Vanuatu to the interim EPA between the EU, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Solomon Islands, which is an asymmetric and WTO-compatible trade agreement, reinforces the legal framework of the EU trade relations with Pacific partner countries and facilitates reciprocal trade. It also incorporates Vanuatu into the regime of joint rules and institutions established by the interim EPA.

The interim EPA is a development-oriented trade agreement that provides asymmetrical access to Vanuatu's market and allows the country to protect sensitive sectors from liberalisation, while also providing for a number of safeguards and an infant industry protection clause. It also contains rules of origin provisions that facilitate Vanuatu's exports to the EU.

Following Vanuatu’s classification by the World Bank as an upper middle-income country, the country will be removed from the list of Everything But Arms (EBA) beneficiary countries under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP), and will no longer benefit from the tariff preferences (duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market) provided under the special arrangement EBA for the least-developed countries as of 1 January 2025.