Brussels, 28/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - High-ranking officials in charge of commercial matters in the Euro-Mediterranean area met in the premises of the Council of the EU in Brussels on Tuesday 27 September to assess progress in implementing the work programme agreed at the Euro-Mediterranean Council of trade ministers on 11 November 2010. During the course of this third series of discussions, following meetings in February and May, the officials focused on “facilitating trade and investment” and took stock of the various contact initiatives on the part of business circles, and anti-counterfeiting efforts.
In November of last year, ministers agreed a work programme in which emphasis was laid on the need to devise a “Euro-Mediterranean facilitation mechanism”, seen as one of the “key initiatives” for strengthening the Euro-Mediterranean trade partnership in the short to medium term. The aim is to “improve transparency and facilitate trade in the goods covered” by free-trade agreements.
This “facilitation” mechanism will centralise information to support the activity of economic operators and administrations in the region. It will be “a transparent, accessible and useful tool for economic operators”, providing “updated information on trade and investment flows, regulations and conditions in the Euro-Mediterranean region”. Once up and running, it will comprise four different constituent parts. Firstly, information on the market access conditions, available to economic operators and administrations in the region. This priority area, to be completed in the short term, will provide information on tariffs, requirements, taxes and other tax measures. The second component is putting in place a system to monitor any “significant impact on trade and investment conditions”. Also to be put in place is a “network of contact points”. Finally, the fourth part is “facilitation of discussion on the obstacles to market access that have been identified and possible ways of resolving these issues”. (FB/transl.rt)