Toledo, 20/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - At the second EuroMediterranean conference on trade that took place in Toledo on Tuesday, the EU and its twelve Mediterranean partners endorsed the important concrete progress that has been made in the past year with the "pragmatic approach" decided upon at the inaugural meeting that had been overburdened with generic declarations (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.10). The Spanish economy minister Rodrigo Rato welcomed the presence of Israel and the Palestinian Authority - and Morocco - at the "fruitful, warm and frank" meeting. The ministers decided to pursue a strategy aiming to develop concrete measures to supplement the removal of customs duties in order to create an effective EuroMed free trade zone, noted Mr Rato, mentioning various areas of progress, including "concrete results" concerning rules of origin. The EU was able to convince its partners to agree to the principle of optional participation by their businessmen in a pan-European accumulation of origin scheme that should help promote trade (which is currently operating at 40% below its potential, according to the Commission) and the opening up of trading activities in the Southern Mediterranean, giving rise to a significant breakthrough in this complex and economically important area. Mr Rato said this would enable the accumulation of origin between the countries involved so that processed goods can benefit from the same preferential customs duties throughout the entire pan-EuroMed region (that also incorporates the 13 candidate countries, Ed).
The ministers noted with satisfaction that the EU and its partners have formally signed virtually all their Association Agreements. Eleven have been signed, including the two recent Association Agreements with Algeria and the Lebanon that are due to be signed in Valencia in April. The one exception is Syria, where negotiations are continuing. The ministers saw this situation as a very positive signal for the Barcelona process and from the EU point of view, a critical mass of implemented free exchange agreements (between the 12 Mediterranean partners, Ed) is necessary to ensure the partnership takes on a genuine South-South dimension beyond the approaches already taken to deepen and apply the bilateral and regional free trade agreements already in existence between various Mediterranean countries, initiatives that all 27 conference participants "strongly supported". The ministers decided to set up a third working group to examine relevant trade measures for regional integration, starting with facilitating trade (harmonisation, simplification and automating customs procedures, regulatory transparency, etc). The new working group will sit alongside the working groups looking at services and rules of origin. The new trade group has been given an "ambitious" plan of action covering customs procedures, standardisation and assessment of compliance and the regulatory framework for investment and protecting intellectual property rights. Its task is to prepare a common harmonised model (or serious of models) by the summer and to recommend procedures and a specific implementation timetable. The ministers feel that the plan should be backed up by technical and trade assistance and appropriate coordination of partnership activities.
The Commission was called upon to examine needs in this domain in order to respond, where possible, in the framework of existing MEDA programmes. Echoing the European business representatives (UNICE- and the new Union of Mediterranean Business Confederations (UMCE) who also attended the meeting in Toledo, the ministers acknowledged that in terms of regional integration, removing customs barriers will not in itself be enough to ensure a rapid growth in trade and a significant rise in investment to improve service statistics on either side of the Mediterranean. Rather than the working group looking at this area being given a negotiating mandate, they called on the group to explore means of improving and liberalising the current regulatory framework over the course of the next meetings (transport and telecoms in the second half of 2002 and tourism and business services in 2003). In terms of the outcome of the Barcelona Summit, they simply "took note" of the decision to set up a strengthened financial facility in the EIB (with double the amount that was invested between 1997 and 2001) to support private infrastructure investment on the southern rim of the Mediterranean; and likewise noted the proposal in Mr Rato's words to create a forum to discuss with Mediterranean partners the policies and instruments to be implemented over the years. Ministers also formally welcomed the fact that the Council will decide, a year after setting up the facility and on the basis of an assessment of its performances, if there is an opportunity to incorporate a Mediterranean subsidiary run by the EIB. The 27 participants were obviously keen to closely collaborate in the negotiations at Geneva on the Doha Development Agenda in an effort to obtain positive results in all the different fields, while highlighting the importance of obtaining technical and trade assistance for developing countries and help them to develop their negotiating capacities. The 12 European partner countries pointed out that the objectives of the Doha Development Agenda and the Euro-Med free-trade process complemented each other and progress needed to be made at both levels.