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35 Euro-Med States go for liberalization before assessing impact
NGOs demand freezing further liberalization until study is released

Brussels/Marrakesh, 27 March 2006 - Thirty-five Euro-Mediterranean nations have decided to start negotiations to liberalize trade in services and agriculture before awaiting the results of a study assessing the impacts of such a policy, Friends of the Earth MedNet charged.

Trade ministers from the European Union as well as Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority and Tunisia released details of their decision to open formal negotiations after a meeting in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh on Friday.

In a letter to trade ministers Euromed environmental NGOs had demanded that further liberalization is frozen until a Sustainability Impact Assessment of the EuroMed Free Trade Area (SIA-EMFTA) study, contracted by the European Commission to Manchester University in Britain, is published in March 2007. (1)

Preliminary findings of the SIA-EMFTA study have already predicted widespread negative social and environmental impacts for Mediterranean partner countries, with no significant economic welfare benefits foreseen for either these countries or the EU. (2) These findings supported earlier research work into the economic, social and environmental impacts of the EuroMed Free Trade Are .

Pushing for liberalization at all costs and under such conditions is irresponsible and unforgivable, Mr Eugene Clancy, Friends of the Earth Mediterranean Programme coordinator, said.

Friends of the Earth MedNet welcomed the emerging concern in recent public statements of Members of the European Parliament about the EMFTA's possible impacts, as well as its discussion by the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly's Economic Committee. EU Parliamentarians are encouraged to carefully review the legislative basis and implications of the trade liberalization negotiations launched in Marrakesh.

In Marrakesh, the 35 Euro-Med ministers also confirmed the goal of achieving a Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area (EMFTA) by 2010 - a "target date" proposed in the 1995 Barcelona Declaration establishing the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. Euromed NGOs believe this target to be unrealistic.

On agriculture, the ministers committed to "a progressive liberalization of trade in agricultural, processed agricultural and fisheries products with a possible selected number of exceptions".

The Euromed ministers spoke about economic benefits expected from trade liberalization in services which contradicts preliminary findings of the SIA-EMFTA of extremely modest economic gains and adverse social and environmental impacts.

Despite identifying sustainable development and regional integration as an "overall objective" the ministers made no reference to the ongoing SIA-EMTFA study or to aligning trade liberalization in the region with the objectives of the recently adopted Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable development.

Contact:

Please contact Friends of the Earth MedNet Coordinator Eugene Clancy on +34 647 089 778. mednet@foeeurope.org and www.foeeurope.org

Notes:

1) See http://www.foeeurope.org/mednet/media/index.html

2) See http://www.sia-trade.org/emfta

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