Roundtable

Date: March 30 th, 2006.

Topic: “Regional Arrangements: What do they mean for MENA?”

This joint Roundatble organized by ERF, ECES and TRACS on the Regional Agreements and their importance for the MENA region.

Event Brief

The first session was chaired by Mr. Galal El-Zorba, Chairman of the Federation of Egyptian Industries and Chairman of the Nile Clothing Company. During this session, Mr. Edmund Saums, the Director of the Middle East Affairs of the Office of the United States Trade Representative, gave a presentation on the US FTA strategy in the Middle East region, with its challenges and prospects. Ms. Michaela Dodini, an Economist from the European Commission (EC) in Brussels and Ms. Barbara Stacher, First Secretary of the Delegation of the EC in Egypt gave a joint presentation on the role of the EU in the region with respect to trade agreements, with a special focus on the New Neighborhood Policy and the initiatives of the EC to promote South-South cooperation. Ambassador Magda Shahin, the Director of the AmCham Trade Center, gave a presentation on regional integration initiatives ad the challenges they pose to the region. Following this presentation, floor was open for discussion and several comments were made, especially pertaining to the controversy about the role of preferential trade agreements, the disadvantages that may be involved in a number of agreements, and the inefficiency of the supply side of the region’s countries.

The second session, which was chaired by Mr. Mohamed Kassem, Chairman of the World Trading Company, focused particularly on the Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZs) experience of both Jordan and Egypt. Marwan Kardoosh, Director of Research of the Jordan Centre for Public Policy Research, gave a presentation on the Jordanian experience of the QIZs since its inception in 1999, with a focus on its advantages and disadvantages to the Jordanian economy. Mr. Ali Awni, Head of the QIZs unit in the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry, portrayed the picture from the Egyptian side, presenting the main benefits of the QIZs to the Egyptian economy in terms of numbers. Edmund Saums gave a picture of what QIZs is intended to achieve in the region. Presentations were followed by a discussion, in which several relevant issues were raised, including the sustainability of such an initiative, the working conditions in the QIZs, domination of foreign labor (in the case of Jordan), and the controversy around the Israeli component requirement.

The meeting concluded with a session on “The Road Ahead”. Dr. Samir Radwan made the following points: 1) The roundtable has shown the importance of regional trade agreements to the countries of the MENA region. It has also pointed out that investment in such arrangements, while needed careful coordination, doesn’t present a problem of overlapping as many of the speakers pointed out. The situation is not one of competition among partners, but rather an attempt to deepen integration. 2) The experience of the FTAs with the EU and USA point to the importance of good preparation for the negotiations on such agreements. The FTA agreement with the USA for instance includes 14 files on issues ranging from trade diversion to labor rights and labor standards. 3) The specific experience of QIZs is a special case, which, despite opposition, has proved to be beneficial for both Jordan and Egypt. Egypt could benefit from the earlier experience of Jordan by maintaining stronger linkages between QIZs and the rest of the economy, and benefiting to the extent possible by creating job opportunities for Egyptians in the QIZ areas. 4) An agenda of future work would include the need for thorough assessment studies on the impact of trade agreements; contribution of technical assistance by trading partners in capacity building and helping countries of the region through the adjustment process, and for research centers such as ERF, to provide a platform to keep the dialogue going between the partners.