Trade Ministers from the European Union and the Mediterranean countries will meet in Brussels tomorrow to discuss the next steps towards completing a deep and comprehensive Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area by 2010.
The talks will be co-chaired by Commissioner for Trade and Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner, alongside the Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Rachid, the French Minister for Foreign Trade, Ms. Anne-Marie Idrac, and the Swedish Minister for Trade, Ms. Ewa Björling.
Ms Ferrero-Waldner said: "This is the Union for the Mediterranean at work, achieving results for our citizens by deepening our economic ties. The initiatives included in the Euromed Trade Roadmap, like the Euro-Mediterranean trade and investment facilitation mechanism, will help create opportunities for Mediterranean partners to attract investment and enhance their competitiveness in Euromed markets. We will start implementing it immediately".
The 8th Union for the Mediterranean Trade Ministerial meeting takes place on the eve of the 2010 target date for the establishment of a Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area. Euromed Ministers will endorse the Euromed Trade Roadmap beyond 2010 which will give new impetus to Euromed trade and investment relations. The objective is to move beyond trade and investment liberalisation between the EU and the Southern Mediterranean, to include ways of tackling non-tariff barriers and to provide businesses with concrete information on trade and investment opportunities across the region.
The European Commission said the meeting will take stock of progress made in on-going negotiations both between the EU and Mediterranean partners and among Southern Mediterranean partners themselves.
During the Ministerial a protocol establishing a dispute settlement mechanism with Tunisia will be signed, and similar protocols with Jordan and Morocco will be initialed. A protocol with Lebanon was already initialed earlier this year.
Agreements on the further liberalisation of processed agricultural and fisheries products have been signed with Israel and Egypt and an agreement with Morocco is within reach.
Trade relations between the EU and the neighbouring Mediterranean (MED) countries are governed by the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership which was launched in November 1995. The partner countries are Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and the Palestinian Authority, as well as Turkey.
The EU is the most important trading partner for the region. EU exports to the MED countries were worth around €132 billion in 2008. This represents 10 percent of total EU exports, or 40 percent of MED countries' imports. Exports from the MED countries to the EU represented around 7.5 percent of total EU imports, and 44 percent of MED exports, worth €116 billion, in 2008.