Brussels, 11/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commissioner for Trade, Pascal Lamy ended a visit on 10 February that took him to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. The first country has still to continue its negotiations with the European Commission for an association agreement, the second initialled its own in 2001 and should sign it on the fringe of the Euro-Med ministerial session in Valencia (Spain) in April. The agreement with Jordan, already signed, still needs ratifying by Belgium to a planned implementation towards the summer.
In Damascus, Lamy had talks, qualified as useful and constructive by his spokesman, with the Head of State. President Bashar Al-Assad is said to have confirmed his country's will to provide an impetus to negotiations so far slowed down by the scale on internal reservations to the policy of openness initiated by the young President. there was, moreover, a question of Syria's joining the WTO and the reform policy of its economic, financial and administrative structures, of which Mr. Lamy was informed by the technical ministers he met.
In Beirut, preparations linked to implementation of the agreement on ratification were the main topics of conversation between Mr. Lamy and the President of the Republic, as with different members of the government. The common commitment is said to be to provide a "good signal" to investors, and Lebanon was invited by the Commission to step up its administrative and fiscal reforms. Mr. Lamy met delegates of European companies located in the country and who are said to have confirmed that there was "work to do" if the reforms promised by the government were to succeed. There was also question of the prospects for regional integration, the process of which has begun among four countries (Agadir process). Lamy confirmed the European interest for the consolidation of the process, stating the hope, shared by Lebanon, that Syria may join rapidly.
In Amman, other than issues linked to the forthcoming implementation of the agreement, the Commission had meeting-debates with the kingdom's industrialists. The Jordanians consulted the Commission on the compatibility of the association agreement with the arrangement for facilitating reciprocal trade agreed, in the context of the peace process, with Israel and the United States (QIZ agreement). Mr. Lamy promised a rapid response to this request, a priori marking a preference for a harmonisation of systems of rules of origin in the region. Currently, the different agreements have introduced disparate mechanisms that the Commission intends replacing by a pan-European system (comprising both Mediterranean and candidate countries).