Brussels, 09/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 13 October, the EU and Tunisia will formally launch their negotiations for a free-trade agreement. The Commissioner for Trade, Cecilia Malmstrom, who will travel to Tunis to launch the process herself along with Tunisia's Minister for Trade Ridha Lahouel, explained on Friday 9 October that the EU hopes that these negotiations will allow it to mark its support for political and economic reforms in Tunisia.
“This is an important signal to be sending out to Tunisia at the moment: we are at your side to support the economic and political reforms you are undertaking in this delicate situation”, she told an interview with AFP. The aim is to “show Turkey that we are its friends, its allies” and, after the tragic terrorist attacks of Bardo and Sousse, it is “important not to turn our back on it”. “It is exactly the right time” to start these negotiations, she insisted.
In years to come, “researchers will note that Europe did not do enough to support the democratic revolution in Tunisia. Everybody was taken by surprise”, Malmstrom said. This free-trade agreement “is part of our support”, the Commissioner continued, calling for mobility and visa facilitation to be stepped up. “The EU/Tunisia association agreement concluded 20 years ago is a good thing, but now we need to go further. We need to step up cooperation in many fields, student exchanges, cooperation in research”, she added.
In view of certain concerns that the Tunisian economy could be opened up too quickly, Malmstrom stressed that the EU was “well aware of the many sensitive issues”. “It is an asymmetrical agreement, which opens up our markets more and takes care to protect certain extremely fragile sectors in Tunisia, there will be very long periods to allow Tunisians to come into line, for agriculture, for instance”, she explained.
With regard to this, the EU initiative, announced in September, to offer temporary additional access to the European market for Tunisian olive oil between early 2016 the end of 2017 is a “first step”. Olive oil is Tunisia's principal agricultural export to the EU and is instrumental in the economy of the country, providing 1 million direct and indirect jobs (20% of agricultural employment).
The EU is Tunisia's largest trade partner and Tunisia is the EU's 34th largest partner. According to the Commission's figures, the EU exported 11 billion euros' worth of goods to Tunisia and imported goods worth €9.4 billion in 2014, leading to a trade surplus of €1.6 billion.
EU imports from Tunisia are dominated by machinery and transport equipment (38.1%), textiles and clothing (24.9%) and fuels and mining products (14%). The EU's exports to Tunisia are dominated by machinery and transport equipment (34.9%), fuel and mining products (14.4%), textiles and clothing (12.4%) and chemicals (7.7 %).
Stocks of foreign direct investment (FDI) of the EU in Tunisia, which stood at €2.6 billion in 2013, are concentrated in the infrastructure network and the textiles and clothing sector. Stocks of the Tunisian FDI in the EU stood at €0.3 billion in 2013. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry and Fathi B'Chir)