Please note this email from Ms Lebo Mofolo at FRUCOM, received this afternoon, 3/10/2025:

Dear All,

Good afternoon, wonderful to see many of you earlier this week.

I just spoke with Isabel from DG TAXUD. The agreement with Morocco has just been finalised, which means that the provisional application of the preference for goods from Western Sahara beginning from tomorrow. This provisional application is whilst the consent of Parliament is pending.

We are awaiting the press team of the Council to publish on the website of the Council some statement or press release.

In terms of changes, Isabel explained them as follows:

• For goods originating in Western Sahara, it is the responsibility of Morocco, in the certificate of origin that it issues, to indicate in the certificate the region in Western Sahara where the goods are from
• The import declaration EUR1 will be modified to include a space for two new codes: one code from the certificate of origin issued by Morocco (above), and another concerning the invoice declaration. This is all that that will change for EU importers bringing in goods from Western Sahara, to ensure they provide these codes in their EUR1 declaration.
• The Commission has already informed Member States of the changes foreseen.
• DG TAXUD will provide some information on their website for the trade, either in form of a Q&A or something similar, which I will share with you as soon as it is published.

For the labelling, i.e. information for consumers, this is something specific to fruit and vegetables where the country of origin has to be displayed on the product itself

https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2024-10/cp240169en.pdf

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-10-2025-002098-ASW_EN.pdf

There will be a briefing on Monday in the INTA committee on the matter “Members will also hold an exchange of views with the Commission on the agreement reached with Morocco in September regarding the trade aspects of the EU-Morocco association agreement and Western Sahara.”

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/committees/en/product/product-details/20251001CAN75309

Kind Regards,

Lebo

(Ms) Lebo Mofolo

Policy Adviser – Trade and Sustainability