Update revised rules PEM Convention per September 1

02/09/21

On 24 August 2020 the European Commission adopted a set of proposals including more flexible and business-friendly rules of origin with 20 of the contracting parties of the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean trade agreement.

The contracting parties aimed on introduction of the new rules as of September 1st. However, only a few countries managed to adopt the proposal in the joint committees under the agreed FTAs before September 1st. As a consequence, the new rules are applicable as of 1 September 2021 between the EU and Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Albania, Jordan and Faroe Islands.

What does this mean for your business?

Because only the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Albania, Jordan and Faroe Islands adopted the proposal in time, the possibility of applying more simplified and flexible rules of origin currently only exists in trade among these countries.

We advise to evaluate opportunities of these simplifications for your company when trading with one of the countries who adopted the new rules and can apply these as of September 1st. If done already, we recommend to double check if any countries that were expected to adopt the proposal before September 1st, did not manage to do so. Applying the new rules when trading with such countries can lead to compliance issues.

The process of adoption of the new rules of origin with all the other partners is ongoing and in different stages of progress. The European Commission will provide on a country-by-country basis any news on a partner being able to apply the new rules after adoption of the proposal. Of course, we will keep informing you on any updates in this regard too.

To read more on the background of this topic and how we can help you, click here for the article on our website.