Europe eases market access for North Africa, ex-Yugoslavia
Image by Andrew RT
(BRUSSELS) - Europe granted new preferential trade terms Thursday to north African and ex-Yugoslav states in a first opening of market access to reforming democracies and EU membership candidates.
The European Union, together with free-trade partners Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, announced they will cut tariffs for 17 states or territories after revising conditions relating to where products are made and sourced.
The Mediterranean beneficiaries are Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey, as well as the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
In the western Balkans, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Kosovo were named.
The EU's current Hungarian chair said a new convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean rules of origin "means tangible economic value" for these countries.
The tariff changes "will help their economies to grow faster, thus contributing to the stability of the whole region and easing migration pressures," the EU presidency said.
As many as 30,000 economic migrants have flooded into the EU from Tunisia and Libya amid turmoil and war over recent weeks, placing huge strains on relations between their main entry-point of Italy and neighbours such as France.
The duties deal means products, for example made using raw materials sourced from China, can be included where value added in the relevant territories during production is identified.
Aside from offering cash aid in cases like Egypt and Tunisia, the EU also wants to boost investment in its north African Arab Mediterranean rim, with some such as France articulating a long-term dream of creating a single market to include the entire Mediterranean.