Introductory text

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Article 207(3) and the first subparagraph of Article 207(4), in conjunction with Article 218(9) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,

Whereas:

On 30 July 2009, the Union signed the Interim Partnership Agreement between the European Community, of the one part, and the Pacific States, of the other part^f1 (the ‘Agreement’), which establishes a framework for an Economic Partnership Agreement. The Agreement has been provisionally applied by the Independent State of Papua New Guinea and by the Republic of Fiji since 20 December 2009 and 28 July 2014, respectively.

Article 80 of the Agreement provides that other Pacific Island States party to the Cotonou Agreement^f2 or Pacific Islands whose structural characteristics and economic and social situation are comparable to those of the countries which are Parties to the Cotonou Agreement may accede to the Agreement on the basis of the submission of a GATT 1994 Article XXIV compliant market access offer. On 5 February 2018, the Independent State of Samoa (Samoa) submitted to the Contracting Parties an accession request together with a GATT 1994 Article XXIV compliant market access offer for decision.

During the sixth Trade Committee meeting on 24 October 2018, representatives of the Union and of the Pacific States drew up a list of technical modifications to the Agreement that are necessary in order to take account of the accession of Samoa to the Agreement. The representatives of the Union and of the Pacific States concluded that those modifications would entail listing Samoa as a Contracting Party to the Agreement and adding Samoa’s market access offer to Annex II to the Agreement. Similar changes to the Agreement would be necessary each time another Pacific Island State accedes to the Agreement.

By Decision (EU) 2018/1908 of 6 December 2018^f3, the Council approved Samoa’s accession request. The text of Samoa’s market access offer was attached to that Decision^f4. Samoa acceded to the Agreement on 21 December 2018 and has provisionally applied the Agreement since 31 December 2018.

Article 68 of the Agreement provides that the Trade Committee is to deal with all matters necessary for the implementation of the Agreement. It is necessary to empower the Trade Committee to decide on any technical modification to the Agreement that might be necessary following the accession of another Pacific Island State.

The seventh meeting of the Trade Committee is to be held on 24 July 2019, where the Trade Committee will be able, pursuant to Article 78 of the Agreement, to recommend that the Parties introduce amendments to the Agreement in order to take account of the accession of Samoa and of the future accessions of other Pacific Island States to the Agreement.

The Union should determine the position to be taken as regards the recommendation for such amendments.

The position of the Union within the seventh meeting of the Trade Committee should therefore be based on the attached draft Recommendation,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: