Four Arab states poised to proclaim free trade zone

Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan will proclaim shortly the creation of a joint free trade zone, as a step towards a broader Arab common market.

Experts of the four nations, who met last week in the Jordanian capital city of Amman, agreed on the holding of a meeting in Morocco to sign the declaration on the creation of the zone.

The date of the meeting will be disclosed later in light of the time-table of the four countries' leaders, a Moroccan source said.

The Moroccan coastal city of Agadir hosted in 2001 a meeting of the four countries foreign ministers that launched the free trade zone project. The zone, open to other Arab nations, is seen as a step towards the creation of an Arab common market.

The Amman two-day meeting studied several technical aspects of the project.