Friday 13 November 2015

UK Government survey on EU Free Trade Agreement negotiations with Morocco and Tunisia

News from the UK IPO that the European Commission is planning to launch free trade agreement negotiations with Morocco and Tunisia in the near future and that the UK Government is conducting a business survey about existing barriers to trade in these countries. They ask for responses to the survey by Friday 27th November. The survey is here.

This part of the Empty Quarter wanted to find out more about the Free Trade Agreement negotiations themselves, did some searching and found these useful summaries from the European Commission for Morocco and Tunisia.

Apparently negotiations for a "Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement" (DCFTA) between the EU and Morocco were launched on 1st March 2013. Four or five negotiating rounds have taken place. The DCFTA is intended to extend significantly beyond the scope of the existing Association Agreement to include trade in services, government procurement, competition, intellectual property rights, investment protection and the gradual integration of the Moroccan economy into the EU single market. The main objective of the DCFTA is to bring Moroccan legislation closer to EU legislation in trade-related areas.

Discussions with Tunisia do not seem to be so advanced.

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