Council Decision (EU) 2018/1573 of 15 October 2018 establishing the position to be taken on behalf of the European Union within the EPA Committee set up by the stepping stone Economic Partnership Agreement between Ghana, of the one part, and the European Community and its Member States, of the other part, as regards the adoption of a Decision of the EPA Committee concerning the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union

The position to be taken on behalf of the European Union within the EPA Committee set up by the stepping stone Economic Partnership Agreement between Ghana, of the one part, and the European Community and its Member States, of the other part, as regards the adoption of a Decision of the EPA Committee, during its annual meeting, concerning the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union, shall be based on the draft Decision of the EPA Committee attached to this Decision.

After its adoption, the Decision of the EPA Committee shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The Republic of Croatia, as a party to the Agreement, shall, in the same way as the other Member States of the Union, respectively adopt and take note of the text of the Agreement, as well as the Annexes, Protocols and Declarations attached thereto.

This Agreement is drawn up in duplicate in the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish and Swedish languages, each of these texts being equally authentic.’.

The Union shall communicate the Croatian language version of the Agreement to Ghana.

1 The provisions of the Agreement shall apply to goods exported either from Ghana to the Republic of Croatia or from the Republic of Croatia to Ghana which comply with the rules of origin in force on the territory of the Parties to the Agreement which, on 15 December 2016, were in transit or in temporary storage, in a customs warehouse or in a free zone in Ghana or in the Republic of Croatia.

2 Preferential treatment shall be granted in the cases referred to in paragraph 1, provided that a proof of origin issued retroactively by the customs authorities of the exporting country is submitted to the customs authorities of the importing country within four months of the date of entry into force of this Decision.

Ghana undertakes not to introduce claims, requests or remedies nor to modify or withdraw any concessions in accordance with Article XXIV (6) and Article XXVIII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) 1994 or Article XXI of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) in relation to the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the Union.

This Decision shall enter into force on the date of its signature. However, Articles 3 and 4 shall apply from 15 December 2016.