European Parliament hearing
The GSP+ mechanism after two years
Corinne Vargha, Director of the ILO Standards department, presented the views of the ILO on the GSP+ mechanism at a hearing organized by the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade and its Sub-committee on Human Rights.
16 February 2016
The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP+) is a special incentive arrangement for sustainable development and good governance. It grants a preferential access to the EU market to developing countries that make binding undertakings to ratify and implement a defined set of international conventions, including the eight ILO core conventions. Currently, 14 countries benefit from this innovative mechanism.
As Ms Vargha pointed out, “While all beneficiary countries have outstanding issues in relation to the ILO fundamental conventions, the GSP+ has the added value of assisting them in moving towards continuous improvement in respect of the core labour rights”.
The European Commission’s DG Trade supports the ILO standards action in many beneficiary countries. El Salvador, Guatemala, Mongolia and Pakistan currently benefit from the first phase of support that aims both to tackle discrimination, forced labour and child labour, and to promote freedom of association and collective bargaining.
Many of the projects in these countries include support for labour inspection and the development of governance institutions, as well as capacity building to ensure their sustainability and buy-in of the national partners.
Further engagement is being pursued with DG DEVCO to develop synergies between trade and development cooperation, thus doubling the impact of the action.
This cooperation was welcomed by the Committee of Experts in its latest report, and will be extended to additional beneficiary countries, such as Armenia, Cape Verde, Paraguay and the Philippines.
The European Commission’s reports make use of the information of the ILO’s supervisory bodies. In closing, Ms Vargha underlined that “The ILO welcomes the procedures and approaches used by the Commission in reporting on achievements made in relation to international labour standards, which have greatly enhanced the synergy between both institutions”.
As Ms Vargha pointed out, “While all beneficiary countries have outstanding issues in relation to the ILO fundamental conventions, the GSP+ has the added value of assisting them in moving towards continuous improvement in respect of the core labour rights”.
The European Commission’s DG Trade supports the ILO standards action in many beneficiary countries. El Salvador, Guatemala, Mongolia and Pakistan currently benefit from the first phase of support that aims both to tackle discrimination, forced labour and child labour, and to promote freedom of association and collective bargaining.
Many of the projects in these countries include support for labour inspection and the development of governance institutions, as well as capacity building to ensure their sustainability and buy-in of the national partners.
Further engagement is being pursued with DG DEVCO to develop synergies between trade and development cooperation, thus doubling the impact of the action.
This cooperation was welcomed by the Committee of Experts in its latest report, and will be extended to additional beneficiary countries, such as Armenia, Cape Verde, Paraguay and the Philippines.
The European Commission’s reports make use of the information of the ILO’s supervisory bodies. In closing, Ms Vargha underlined that “The ILO welcomes the procedures and approaches used by the Commission in reporting on achievements made in relation to international labour standards, which have greatly enhanced the synergy between both institutions”.