Preferential tariff arrangements: management

Adopting the report by Mr Jean-Thomas Nordmann (ELDR, F) on preferential tariff arrangements, Parliament considers that an effective and deterrent system of penalties should be set up for beneficiary countries and their operators convicted of fraud, going as far as the withdrawal of preferences. It welcomes the introduction in 1995 of a system of penalties in the Community's GSP but regrets 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. With regard to fraud detection, Parliament considers that Commission delegations in third countries have an important preventive, detection and deterrent role to play, in cooperation with the representatives of the Member States. Parliament calls for the rules on origin to be revised and eased and stresses the need for a new approach to derogations, to make regional accumulation generally applicable and to take account of the interests of the least-developed countries. Parliament calls on the Commission to make proposals to ensure that liability is fairly apportioned in cases where, as a result of proven irregularities committed by the authorities of the beneficiary countries, EU importers are penalised for making use of preferential tariff arrangements. It also calls on the Commission to take the necessary steps to prevent transshipments of products from countries excluded from the scheme from taking place in the beneficiary countries. �