1.An eligible country shall benefit from the tariff preferences provided under the general arrangement referred to in point (a) of Article 1(2) unless:
(a)it has been classified by the World Bank as a high-income or an upper-middle income country during three consecutive years immediately preceding the update of the list of beneficiary countries; or
(b)it benefits from a preferential market access arrangement which provides the same tariff preferences as the scheme, or better, for substantially all trade.
2.Points (a) and (b) of paragraph 1 shall not apply to least-developed countries.
3.Without prejudice to point (b) of paragraph 1, point (a) of paragraph 1 shall not apply until 21 November 2014, for countries which by 20 November 2012 have initialled a bilateral preferential market access agreement with the Union, which provides the same tariff preferences as the scheme, or better, for substantially all trade, but which is not yet applied.