Brussels, 23/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - In Rabat on Monday, the EU and Morocco began trade negotiations for a deep and comprehensive free trade area (DCFTA). Their discussions open the way for the conclusion of new Euro-Mediterranean trade agreements.
Speaking shortly before the talks, European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said he hoped talks with Morocco would make swift progress and encourage other partners in the southern Mediterranean to begin similar discussions very soon. It is believed that a meeting with Tunisia is scheduled during May.
A second session with Morocco is due to be held before the summer in order to rapidly go through all the stages leading to review of various subjects, such as services, public procurement, protection of investments, competition rules, and intellectual property, and to define trade facilitation measures (customs procedures, standards, tariff and non-tariff barriers, especially phytosanitary and sanitary measures, protection of the environment, etc.). Stefan Füle, the European commissioner for neighbourhood policy, said in a recent interview with the Moroccan agency that the agreement will go beyond the simple notion of liberalising trade and eliminating customs duties in that it will give preference to closer economic integration, a reduction of non-tariff barriers, liberalisation of the trade in services and increased protection for investment. He thus reaffirms the objective defined in December 2011 when the EU Council of Ministers gave its go-ahead to talks on a deep and comprehensive free trade agreement with four countries of the region - Morocco, Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia - and adopted ad hoc negotiating mandates. The negotiations will, according to De Gucht, bear witness to the EU's deep commitment to developing trade and investment with those Mediterranean partners that chose the road of political and economic reform.
These discussions will also define the framework for trade relations with a region where the proposed vast multilateral free trade area in 2010 no longer exists, giving the impression that the priority is now for what is bilateral.
It will also be necessary to take into account the extent of market opening admitted within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) (this is especially true in services where the Mediterranean countries plan not to make concessions beyond what has been defined in Geneva). It will be necessary to also take into account the network of relations, including with a view to regional or sub-regional integration. In this respect, Morocco is a test case. At the same time as it gives itself up to liberalising trade with the EU, Morocco is opening its market under trade agreements with other countries or trading entities, and with the United States especially.
The agreement with Washington, which was signed in July 2005 and deepened in December 2012, and which is presented as having exclusively economic and trading purposes, covers all the sectors of economic activity including the trade in goods, the trade in services, intellectual property, social and environmental issues.
An agreement was signed in 1997 with non-Community Europe (EFTA), taking effect on 1 March 2000 and providing for a gradual phasing out of industrial trade over 12 years. In 2004, Morocco undertook with Turkey to gradually (over ten years) create an industrial free trade area. This agreement is seen as a contribution to the project of a large free-trade area, planned for 2010 but still not in place. Nonetheless, various bilateral agreements between the countries of the region allow a network of trade relations to be formed that may prefigure this intention. In the same spirit, and in a multilateral way, Morocco is a member of the Agadir Agreement, which provides for the liberalisation of South-South trade in the Mediterranean. At this stage, however, only Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan have signed up. Officially launched in 2008, the agreement, which enjoys European support, seems to be on the backburner or only operating minimally, and also comes in an uncertain regional political context. Finally, the country is committed to the Arab plan aimed at the concept of a great free trade area. (FB/transl.jl)