Brussels, 13/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - Like Morocco before it, Tunisia, which has received a proposal from the EU to negotiate a deep and comprehensive free-trade agreement (DCFTA) covering the services sector, is hesitating over its ability to respond to this invitation. There is an open debate on the public scene, which expresses doubt over the approaches adopted in the relationship with the EU. Explanation efforts have been made by the EU and its representation since the visit, in March of this year, of Commissioner Stefan Füle (see EUROPE 11039), to mollify Tunisian concerns. However, these have in fact been reinforced, due to financial support which Tunis believes is too low. The commitment made by France and Germany to hold a conference of donors is taking shape, but the method used to determine Tunisia's needs has not yet been clarified. It will be the subject of detailed talks during the forthcoming visit of the head of the Tunisian government, Mehdi Jomâa, to Brussels. Sources have quoted 20 June as the date of this meeting, which will also discuss negotiations on the Open Sky (air transport), a mobility agreement (visas and migration) and other discussions on “deep trade”.
“For certain political figures, there is considerable temptation to criticise or call into question the free-trade agreements with our main commercial partner, the European Union”, writes Ghazi Ben Ahmed, an expert who is particularly familiar with the machinery of the Commission, having worked for the institution (our translation throughout).
In an open letter published in the media earlier this week, he argued that it is “naive and misleading to claim that the effects of the recession can be attenuated by isolating Tunisia from the European trade giant”. He goes on to reject the “often used” argument of “closing the borders to foreign products in order to protect domestic industries and jobs from European competition”, an argument he describes as “illusory and counter-productive”. Measures, such as recent ones prohibiting Italian marble, have harmed the construction sector more than they have helped it, the expert states. “Although this can be justified in exceptional cases and in the framework of specific sectors, for which too much exposure to international competition could be entirely harmful, a general return to protectionism would, without the slightest doubt, be a grave mistake”.
There is, therefore, greater interest in opening the country up to international trade in order to offset the “narrowness of the national market”. To substantiate this, he argues that, in 16 years, “Tunisia has been able to make the most out of the preferences granted by the EU”. “Consumers and producers based in Tunisia are also benefiting”. However, “our industry has not been able to diversify and increase the added value produced locally. It has remained dependent on the good economic health of the few countries of the eurozone”.
He puts forward a “trilateral vision”: a “Tunisia which is integrated in its North African region, and towards the North, with Europe in a reinvigorated euro-Mediterranean regime and, in the long term, offering the four freedoms of movement of goods, services, capital and people, and from privileged relations with the United States, whose leadership in the region is vital”.
He calls for a “redefinition” of relations with the Western partners and to seek their assistance to “plug the budgetary gap, and also to develop a competitive Euro-Mediterranean bloc, generating jobs and in which the same values of peace and democracy are shared”. The only choice, he argues, is to “anchor our economy to that of the European Union”. And at the same time, he adds, “the salvation of Europe can only come about by including North Africa in the 'everything but institutions' regime Romano Prodi spoke about in December 2002”. (FB)