EU Gives 16 Developing Countries Duty Free Access

Published: 09 Dec 2008 18:45:00 PST

BRUSSELS -- The European Commission Tuesday gave exports from 16 developing countries that are implementing international human and labor rights agreement special duty free access to the European Union.

The program, known as the Generalalized System of Preferences+, will apply to 16 countries - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Georgia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Sri Lanka and Venezuela. Two of those countries - El Salvador and Sri Lanka - will only be admitted pending an investigation by the commission to determine that they have fully implemented the agreements.

The program runs through January 2009 until the end of 2011.

-By Matthew Dalton, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 741 1487; matthew.dalton@dowjones.com