The European Commission will hold the inaugural Stakeholder Forum of the recently launched Action on GSP Trade Preferences, to be held on 29 September 2020 online and in-person at the Charlemagne Building in Brussels.
As part of the Action, the Stakeholder Forum aims to increase awareness, analysis, and engagement with the EU’s GSP. As the first in a series of events to be carried out under the project, the Stakeholder Forum will address three main topics:
- the role of GSP in post-pandemic recovery;
- GSP’s relevance and potential for Africa; and
- GSP tariff preferences and promotion of sustainable development in Central Asia.
Each topic will be featured in a 40 minute moderated panel discussion, bringing together expert views from different perspectives having a stake in the issue. The Stakeholder Forum will invite representatives from civil society, academia, industry and trade associations, and EU and beneficiary country public officials. Participants will have the opportunity to comment and present questions following each panel discussion. The objective of the event is to encourage EU importers to increase sourcing and investment in GSP beneficiary countries, while promoting exchange between civil society network on the leverage that the GSP has towards sustainable development.