Jordan Times
Friday, February 18, 2005
EU extends 3m euros to support
Amman-based technical unit for managing Agadir Agreement
AMMAN (JT) — The European Union (EU) has signed a three -million-euro technical
assistance contract to support the establishment of a technical unit to manage
the Agadir Agreement for free trade between Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.
The contract was awarded to Maxwell Stamp, a UK-based consultant specialised in
trade matters, and came as part of a four-million-euro financing agreement
signed in December between the Delegation of the European Commission and the
Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation to help implementation of the
Agadir Agreement.
Welcoming the contract, Industry and Trade Minister Ahmad Hindawi explained that
the technical unit will become operational once the Agadir Agreement enters into
force.
The Agadir Agreement is expected to create an integrated market of more than 100
million people, thus providing new attractive opportunities for investors in the
region, the minister indicated.
The Head of the European Commission Delegation to Jordan, Ambassador Robert van
der Meulen, expressed hope that EU assistance would result into the creation of
a technical unit with a real capacity to move the Agadir Agreement forward.
“This means having a highly-qualified staff in sufficient number and with the
appropriate legal status to take over management of the technical assistance
that we are extending,” van der Meulen said.
“In short, we would like to see this technical unit empowered by the partner
countries to drive forward the process of economic integration under the Agadir
Agreement,” he added.
The contract's signing precedes by a few days important talks on the functions,
responsibilities, legal status and scope of work of the future technical unit.
Senior officials from Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia are converging on Amman for
consultations scheduled for Saturday and Sunday to finalise a protocol for the
establishment of the technical unit.
The Agadir Agreement allows Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia to cumulate
origin to export to the EU duty-free and quota-free. This means that even if
Jordanian input into a product is not large enough for that product to be
exported freely to the EU, Egyptian, Tunisian or Moroccan input can be added, so
that the required value-added percentage is reached and the product can enter
the EU market duty-free and quota-free.
This is why the EU considers the Agadir Agreement a crucial step towards the
creation of a Euro-Mediterranean free trade area by 2010, and the European
Commission has been one of the main political supporters of this initiative
since the Agadir Declaration was signed, in May 2001.
The agreement was finalised in early 2002, and it will enter into force once the
national parliaments of the four signatory states have completed ratification
procedures.
The Jordanian Parliament is expected to ratify the agreement shortly.