Brazil, Gulf states, Malaysia, Russia lose EU trade benefits

(BRUSSELS) - A score of high-income nations such as Brazil, Russia and the Gulf states lost their privileged access to the EU's 500 million consumers on Wednesday as the bloc handed their benefits to poorer states.

Issuing a revised list of countries entitled to reduced- or zero-import tariff rates for the world's biggest consumer market, the EU's executive said that the "new scheme will be focused on fewer beneficiaries to ensure more impact on countries most in need."

Moving also to stop pumping aid into countries that fail to respect democratic values, the European Commission said there would be more support for those that respect human and labour rights, the environment and good governance rules.

The new system of Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) will come into effect January 1, 2014, for 89 nations, 49 of which are listed as least developed countries.

Of these, 33 are in Africa, 10 in Asia, including Myanmar, five in the Pacific and Haiti in the Caribbean.

A further 40 "low and lower middle income" nations, including China, India, Iran, Iraq and Syria, are also listed to benefit from the GSP scheme.

Removed are 20 nations listed for three years running by the World Bank as "high or upper middle income" economies.

These are very rich Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Macao and the five Gulf states, followed by upper-middle income nations Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Uruguay, Venezuela, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Gabon, Libya, Malaysia and Palau.

Reform of the EU Generalised 
Scheme of Preferences - guide