Agro-Food Preferences in the EU's GSP Scheme: An Analysis of Changes between 2004 and 2006.

In 2006 the EU revised again its Generalised System of Preferences scheme which provides preferential access to developing country exports to the EU market. This paper examines the extent to which the 2006 revisions to the scheme improved market access opportunities for developing countries for agro-food exports where most of the tariff changes were concentrated. Changes in the percentage preferential margin, in the value of preferential trade and in the value of the preferential margin on agro-food imports between 2004 and 2006 from developing countries are calculated. The results show that while the 2006 revision saw only a slight increase in the average percentage preferential margin enjoyed by exporters, there has been a significant increase in the preferential trade. This was accompanied by changes in the ranking of beneficiaries, particularly under the main GSP scheme. Although the predominance of net-exporting emerging countries such as China, Brazil, Argentina, India and South Africa was maintained, some newcomers such as Thailand and Vietnam have now emerged as major GSP beneficiaries.