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29.6.2013 Official
Journal
of
the
European
Union L
181/13
REGULATION (EU) No 607/2013 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 12 June 2013
repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 552/97 temporarily withdrawing access to generalised tariff
preferences from Myanmar/Burma
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE
in Myanmar/Burma, showing that the practices referred
EUROPEAN UNION,
to in point (a) of Article 15(1) of Regulation (EC) No
732/2008 no longer exist.
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European
Union, and in particular Article 207 thereof,
(5) On
13
June
2012
the
International
Labour
Conference
(ILC) adopted a resolution ‘Concerning the measures on
the subject of Myanmar adopted under article 33 of the
Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,
ILO Constitution’ (ILC resolution). Taking note of the
conclusions adopted on 4 June 2012 by the ILC
Committee on the Application of Standards and
After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national
considering that maintaining the existing measures
Parliaments,
would no longer help attaining the desired result, the
ILC decided to lift restrictions, which excluded the
Government of Myanmar/Burma from receiving ILO
Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure ( 1 ),
technical cooperation and assistance. It also suspended
for one year the ILO request of its members to review
their relationships with Myanmar/Burma to ensure forced
Whereas:
labour is not being used in those relationships.
(1) Article
1
of
Council
Regulation
(EC)
No
552/97
of (6) On
17
September
2012,
the
Commission
published
a
24 March 1997 temporarily withdrawing access to
report pursuant to Article 2 of Council Regulation (EC)
generalized tariff preferences from the Union of Myan
No 552/97 with respect to the forced labour in Myan
mar ( 2 ), as amended by Article 28(1) of Council Regu
mar/Burma, containing its findings (‘the Report’). The
lation (EC) No 732/2008 of 22 July 2008 applying a
Report concludes that the progress made by Myan
scheme of generalised tariff preferences from 1 January
mar/Burma towards complying with the ILO recommen
2009 ( 3 ), provides that Myanmar/Burma’s access to the
dations, which has been acknowledged by the competent
tariff preferences granted by Regulation (EC) No
ILO monitoring bodies, means that violations of the
732/2008 is temporarily withdrawn.
principles laid down in ILO Convention No 29 are no
longer considered as ‘serious and systematic’ and
recommends that access to generalised tariff preferences
(2) Point
(a)
of
Article
15(1)
of
Regulation
(EC)
No
should be reinstated to Myanmar/Burma.
732/2008 provides that the preferential arrangements
provided for in that Regulation may be withdrawn
temporarily, in respect of all or of certain products orig
inating in a beneficiary country, for the serious and
(7)
In view of the ILC resolution and of the Report, and
pursuant to Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 552/97,
systematic violation of principles laid down in the
the temporary withdrawal of Myanmar/Burma’s access
conventions listed in Part A of Annex III to that Regu
to the tariff preferences granted by Regulation (EC) No
lation, on the basis of the conclusions of the relevant
monitoring bodies.
732/2008 should therefore be repealed, as of the date of

the adoption of the ILC resolution.
(3) The
International
Labour
Organisation
(ILO)
Convention
concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour, 1930 (No 29),
(8) The
Commission
should
continue
to
monitor
devel
is listed in Part A of Annex III to Regulation (EC) No
opments in Myanmar/Burma with respect to forced
732/2008.
labour and react to them in accordance with the
procedures in force, including, if necessary, with
renewed withdrawal procedures,
(4) Pursuant
to
Article
2
of
Regulation
(EC)
No
552/97,
the
application of that Regulation should be brought to an
end in the light of a Commission report on forced labour
HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
( 1 ) Position of the European Parliament of 23 May 2013 (not yet
published in the Official Journal) and decision of the Council of
10 June 2013.
Article 1
( 2 ) OJ L 85, 27.3.1997, p. 8.
( 3 ) OJ L 211, 6.8.2008, p. 1.
Regulation (EC) No 552/97 is hereby repealed.

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L 181/14
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
29.6.2013
Article 2
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official
Journal of the European Union.
It shall apply from 13 June 2012.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Strasbourg, 12 June 2013.
For the European Parliament
For the Council
The President
The President
M. SCHULZ
L. CREIGHTON

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Document Outline

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