Meeting on Arab free trade zone opens in Rabat
Regional, Economics, 5/8/2001

A meeting on the setting up of an Arab free trade area opened proceedings in Rabat this Tuesday.

The meeting, held behind closed doors, is attended by the foreign ministers of Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Jordan and the representatives of Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.

Libya and Mauritania are attending the meeting as members of the Arab Maghreb Union (that also musters Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia) and observers in the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation process.

The meeting, held at Morocco's invitation, is meant to set up an Arab-Mediterranean economic partnership as a first phase towards the establishment of an economic partnership between all the members of the Arab League and the creation of a common Arab market, as recommended by the latest Arab summit held in Amman in March. It equally seeks agreement on a common plan of action between the participating countries and the European Union.

Four of the participating countries in the Rabat meeting, namely Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia, are already bound at the bilateral level by accords setting up free trade areas. Projects to set up similar areas are under discussion between the other countries.

Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia are also bound to the European Union by association accords while association accords between the European Union and Algeria and Syria are under negotiation.

The meeting, the first of the kind of the Arab-Mediterranean countries, is deemed as a new orientation in Arab action.

In his speech to the latest Arab ordinary summit, King Mohammed VI had urged Arab heads of state to grant priority to economic, technological and scientific cooperation and to set aside ideological differences and political strives.

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