National round-table on effect of trade and the environment in Syria
Syria, Economics, 9/8/2000

The National round-table was held in Damascus on September 6, 2000 to explore trade and the environment.

In a statement to Arabic News, Carol Chouchani Cherfane, regional coordinator, med. policies initiative of the Mediterranean Environmental technical assistance program of Harvard for international development said: " the Med. Policies project ( METAP) " Mediterranean Environmental Technical Assistance program which includes 13 countries and Syria is one of them."

She added " when we started this project in September of 1997 we asked each country which kind of interest for them. And we gave three options to work on trade and environment; privatization and environmental liability and the social and economic aspects of Air Quality, noting that Syria chose to work on trade and the environment."

She added that the way we conduct the work is to go by two avenues: to make a study with a report by the end in order to provide the governments with economic analysis and then we approached the project from a process and as a result people become part of the development process. She said that the aim is to help people to developing the final product, noting that the private sector can also greatly benefit from this study, because what the study does is helping people to see the impact of adopting stronger environmental standards. We found in Syria and seven other countries in the Mediterranean region is that the impact on output and exports by strengthening environmental regulations turned to be less to 5% negative and very often less than 1% impact.

And it is not difficult to change 5% negative impact or 1% negative impact into the positive effects if we make some simple efficiency improvement through conserving energies.

However, the Med. Policies initiative is a world Bank project funded under the auspices of the Mediterranean Environmental Technical assistance program ( METAP). METAP is a joint program of the world Bank , the United national Development program, the European Union, the European Investment bank, and the Swiss Development Agency. METAP seeks to build environmental capacity and increase environmental investment in the Mediterranean region. The Med. Policies Initiative has been managed by the Harvard Institute for International Development at Harvard University since 1997 and will become a project of the United Nations Economic and social commission of Western Asia ( ESCWA), which is based in Beirut, Lebanon in January 2001.

Concerning Syrian rapid assessments on trade and environment, the Med.

Policies Initiative is working with the Syrian ministry of Environment and Envirotech.

Issues between public and private sector stakeholders.

The project is currently completing a " Rapid assessment on trade and Environment", which seeks to assess the impact that cost changes due to environmental strengthening may have on the competitiveness of seven major Syrian sectors. The export sectors being examined are cotton, cotton yarn, textiles and olive oil. The three sectors examined that may be impacted by an increase in Syrian imports and strengthening of environmental regulations are the chemicals, plastics and medicines.

As such, the assessment is made to address the competitiveness of Syrian exports, as well as the competitiveness of Syrian products vis a vis imports in the domestic market should Syrian industry be required to comply with stronger environmental standards.

Moreover, the objective of the National Roundtable on Trade and Environment is to solicit the opinions and perspectives of public and private sector stakeholders on the preliminary findings of the Syrian Rapid Assessment on Trade and Environment. The Purpose is to present the preliminary findings, fine tune the results of the study, foster policy dialogue, and identify policy recommendations on trade and environment for inclusion in the final report.

For instance, participants may be asked if, at the industry level, energy costs in the textile sector represent 10%, 15% or 25% of total production costs. How could these cost shares change if efficiency gains were achieved by investments in new technologies? What policies might be recommended to encourage investments in these technologies ? Discussions will also seek to identify policy priorities. The round-table is meant to be highly interactive and is dependent on the willingness of the participants to express the opinions and concerns regarding the rapid assessment findings. And in this way, the Med.

Policies Initiative seeks to assist policy makers and private business better understand the relationship between environmental regulations and some of Syria 's most important sectors.

In a similar statement to Arabic News Dr. Husam Morad, economic Consultant for the minister of Higher Education, UNDP, ESCWA, world Bank and Harvard Institute of International development and also professor of economics, Damascus University said "I conducted this study on several sectors which are very important for the Syrian economy". He added that the aim is to find out the effect of changing environmental regulations on the output, export and competitiveness of these sectors and their relation to the international trade. He said that this study covered cotton, Yarn, textiles and sugar.

Dr. Morad continued that the study showed that some sectors are not very sensitive to imposing environmental regulations and the effects are relatively small. A matter which encourages considering the application of such regulations which may help conforming to international standards and hence opening new markets and opportunities for improving quality and reducing costs for cotton, textile and yarns.

However, the effect of environmental legislation in the EU on Syria's export of raw cotton and cotton based textile products to the EU will be greatly affected in relation to the concept of trade and the environment.

Syria's products currently enter EU markets duty free and quota free by virtue of the cooperation agreement signed between Syria and the European Community in 1977. The EU, however, is obliged to terminate this privilege by 2005, in accordance with Uruguay Round agreements, unless Syria joins the new free trade area proposed under the Euro- Mediterranean Partnership. The EU will also be lifting all quota restrictions on all textile imports by 2005. This will subject Syrian textile imports in the EU to intense competition from low cost Asian textile markets which until now have been subjected to high quota restrictions of the EU.

On the positive side, Syria banned the use and import of carcinogenic azo dyes in 1996, an input used in the production of fabric. The presence of azo dyes in textiles is already prohibited in Germany and Holland, and likely will also be banned throughout the EU. The question is whether Syria has an advantage over its international competitors because it has already banned and adjusted to the non- use of azo dyes and how Syria can maintain this comparative advantage when EU markets opens to more foreign competition.

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