Syrian cotton fabrics and the EU
Syria-European Union, Economics, 3/13/2001

The BBC correspondent in Damascus said on Monday that at a time when both Syria and the European Union are preparing to convey a round of negotiations in Syria by the end of this month, the European Commission EC has sent an urgent memorandum addressed to the Syrian government on the possibility of taking preventive measures against what it called " flooding the European markets with Syrian exports of high- quality cotton fabrics," at prices less than European producers and other exporters who export their products in the framework of trade agreements with the European Union and those exporters include Turkey.

The EC called on Syria to react quickly in order to prevent what it called the support it has given to the Syrian producers, otherwise it will face immediate measures to limit the Syrian exports or halt them.

An official at the EC said " we are concerned over the great and sudden increase in the Syrian exports of Syrian cotton textiles and fabrics to the European markets." He explained that this increase came as a result of the policy of the Syrian government relating to tax exemptions of exports operations which came in the framework of efforts to increase exports, adding that the European Union does not want to embark on the policy of threatening nor wants relations with Syria to start with the question of fighting a drowning case that might be painful because it will last for five years and it can not be stopped before the end of this period of time even if reasons behind it are eliminated.

The Syrian sources justified the process of increasing high- quality cotton exports to the European markets in that this happened when four new spinning factories were built in collaboration with German, Spanish and Chinese companies, a fact which resulted in increasing the volume of production from 80,000 tons to 145,000 tons.

In its message addressed to Damascus the European Union called for an urgent meeting to discuss proposals including limiting the Syrian exports or drawing a mechanism to control the cotton textiles to the European union and defining their prices.

The Syrian sources estimated Syrian total exports of cotton fabrics and textiles of 76,000 tons estimated at 177 million USD.

Previous Stories:
  European Investment Bank second visit to Syria   (2/1/2001)
  Al-Assad receives the EIB delegation   (12/15/2000)
  European Investment Bank resumes lending to Syria   (12/11/2000)

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