Brussels, 26/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner Pascal Lamy left Cairo, where he was officially on visit from Friday to Sunday, feeling "a little more confident" than before that Egypt could be rallied to the promotion of a new round of talks on liberalisation of world trade from next November in Qatar. He also sought to heighten the Union's profile in this country where the Member States, like France or Spain, have a far more marked presence. He also reminded those who doubted of the advantages of the EU/Egypt association agreement, which should enter into force once signed (no doubt before the end of the semester) and ratified, which could take two to three years.
"We have the feeling that, although opinions will continue to differ about substance, Egypt has undertaken to launch the round", said sources close to the Community delegation. In a speech delivered on Sunday before a group of diplomats and with his discussion partners from the Egyptian government, Mr Lamy noted the Union's "moderate ambitions" for the future multilateral round. The proof of this, he said, is "our opt-out approach that would allow all WTO members to negotiate competition and investment without final commitments". Thus "you are not obliged to believe us when we say that we are not seeking maximalist negotiation: you are covered by insurance", he added. The Commissioner explained the aims of the Union, recalling in passing that commercial sanctions against countries that do not respect the minimum social standards will be ruled out, as well as the "new and quite substantial" proposals put forward to reassure and rally developing countries (better market access, better coordination of assistance, review of existing rules, determination concerning problems of implementation encountered, etc.). He said he hoped and expected that Egypt "a country that is at the crossroads of our trade policy (…) will join me in achieving this aim". It is one of the five or six emergent countries, together with South Africa, Brazil and India, that can sway the balance by the autumn. Egypt, stressed Mr Lamy, plays a key role not only in the Barcelona Process and in the Arab context, as the next Ammam summit will no doubt show, but also in Africa through Comesa. He insisted "you are one of the world leaders for development in Geneva and elsewhere". He also mentioned the firm approach taken when concluding the bilateral agreement with the Union.
The agreement, initialled in January this year after five long years of negotiation which had stumbled over agricultural, tariff, rules of origin, human rights and social chapters, opens the road to a free trade area between the Union and Egypt. "We were able to show the importance that we attach to this bilateral relationship through this very ambitious agreement compared to others of the same kind", stressed a member of the delegation headed by Mr Lamy. He also tried to dissipate the doubts expressed in certain circles (opposition parliamentarians, businessmen), regarding the benefits that the Egyptians can expect to receive from the new agreement. The Commissioner was able to explain to various interlocutors the details of this agreement and give them information that seemed to be lacking, recalling in particular that the Union had considerably improved its concessions in favour of agricultural exports from Egypt and its willingness to grant Egypt technical assistance to help it "export more to us". The bilateral problems concerning anti-dumping in particular and the phytosanitary measures linked to BSE and foot-and-mouth disease were also discussed.
Mr Lamy also tackled horizontal issues with his Egyptian counterpart Youssef Boutros-Ghali. He mainly stressed that harmonisation of rules of origin is a key point in facilitating trade, in the same way as the interconnection in fields still very compartmentalised, such as energy, telecommunications and transport.
Finally, the Commissioner said he was convinced that regional integration is an historic procedure that deserves to be encouraged. The value of North-North integration can be but limited without a similar process of commercial cooperation and trade between southern countries, he said in essence, stressing the role that Egypt is able to fill, mainly with a view to the meeting of trade ministers taking part in the Barcelona Process (Euromed), in Brussels on 28 May this year. In this light, Mr Lamy was delighted to learn from one of his interlocutors that the proposed free trade area that Egypt hopes to create with Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan seems to have "a future".