(i) Exclusion and graduation. In order to allow the EU’s GSP to keep focusing on
countries most in need of preferences, an exclusion mechanism has been built into the
GSP scheme. The beneficiary countries, which have reached a level of development
similar to that of developed countries, will therefore be excluded from the EU’s GSP.
Two criteria must be met as follows[11]: first, the country has to be classified during
three consecutive years by the World Bank as a high-income country. Second, the five
largest product sections of its GSP imports in the EU should represent less than
75 percent of its total GSP imports, and GSP imports from that country should also
represent less than 1 percent of total EU imports under the GSP. Therefore, a country will
be excluded from the list of beneficiaries, only if sufficiently developed and meeting
the two criteria above. Once excluded, a country may be included again if it does not meet
those criteria during three consecutive years.