Znaczenie reguł pochodzenia towarów dla beneficjentów systemu preferencji jednostronnych GSP Unii Europejskiej – kierunki ich zmian po 2010 roku

The Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) was launched by the European Union in July 1971. Its main objective was to provide developing countries with easier access to the EU market by cutting down or eliminating customs rates imposed on goods imported from these countries. The significance of GSP preferences for the beneficiaries of the scheme is constrained by several factors. Among them, rules of origin of goods are of key importance. They imply that economic operators must comply with complex rules of origin of goods, which increase the costs of administrative procedures and impose specific technical requirements. The aim of the article is to assess the rules of origin in the European Union’s GSP system of unilateral preferences, with a focus on changes introduced to these rules since 2011. In the paper it was put forward as a research hypothesis that the changes in the rules of origin of goods introduced in the last two decades had resulted in their simplification and relaxation, particularly in the case of the least developed countries (LDC) and in relation to specific groups of goods important from the standpoint of these countries’ exports. This was advantageous for the least developed countries, which were most impacted by these changes. However, this does not mean that the rules of origin of goods are no longer a barrier for beneficiaries in their preferential access to the EU market, especially in the case of certain goods and other GSP subsystems.