Brazil and Argentina could lose GSP preferences for cosmetic exports to EU
Concessions to favour poorer countries
Brazil and Argentina are among almost 100 countries expected to lose tariff breaks for their cosmetics exports to the (EU) under a planned reform of the EU’s Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) system.
The European Commission wants to focus import duty concessions on poorer countries and so those regarded by the World Bank as high-or-upper middle income states would no longer qualify from January 2014.
Other countries likely to lose out include Russia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. There would also be formal losses of GSP status for Mexico, South Africa, Turkey, Chile and Algeria, but these countries (and others, especially many neighbouring the EU) already have free trade and association agreements.
China and India would probably hang on to their GSP concessions, but that status could be lost in future if they get richer and meanwhile if their personal care product exports surged above 12.5% of all EU GSP imports of these products.