Deeper Integration and Trade in Services in the Euro-Mediterranean Region

Deeper Integration and Trade in Services in the Euro-Mediterranean Region PDF Author: Daniel Müller-Jentsch
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 9780821359556
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
This publication examines the importance of trade in services for the integration of non-EU members into the European Single Market. Further liberalisation is found to be a critical factor to deeper integration with the enlarged EU, which accounts for a quarter of global GDP and foreign direct investment. The planned Euro-Mediterranean free trade area for goods is judged as a positive first step, but additional measures are needed for deeper integration, including liberalisation of services trade. The study gives a detailed assessment of individual sectors, including core services relating to transport, telecommunication, financial markets and electricity, as well other markets such as tourism, IT and distribution services.

Deeper Integration and Trade in Services in the Euro-Mediterranean Region

Deeper Integration and Trade in Services in the Euro-Mediterranean Region PDF Author: Daniel Müller-Jentsch
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 9780821359556
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 130

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Book Description
This publication examines the importance of trade in services for the integration of non-EU members into the European Single Market. Further liberalisation is found to be a critical factor to deeper integration with the enlarged EU, which accounts for a quarter of global GDP and foreign direct investment. The planned Euro-Mediterranean free trade area for goods is judged as a positive first step, but additional measures are needed for deeper integration, including liberalisation of services trade. The study gives a detailed assessment of individual sectors, including core services relating to transport, telecommunication, financial markets and electricity, as well other markets such as tourism, IT and distribution services.

Deep Integration, Nondiscrimination, and Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade

Deep Integration, Nondiscrimination, and Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade PDF Author: Bernard M. Hoekman
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Bilateral Free Trade Agreement
Languages : en
Pages : 44

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Book Description
Abstract: May 1999 - Preferential trade agreements that are limited to the elimination of tariffs for merchandise trade flows are of limited value at best and may be as easily welfare-reducing as welfare-enhancing. It is important that preferential trade agreements go beyond eliminating tariffs and quotas to eliminating regulatory and red tape costs and opening up service markets to foreign competition. Deep integration-explicit government actions to reduce the market-segmenting effect of domestic regulatory policies through coordination and cooperation-is becoming a major dimension of some regional integration agreements, led by the European Union. Health and safety regulations, competition laws, licensing and certification regimes, and administrative procedures such as customs clearance can affect trade (in ways analogous to nontariff barriers) even though their underlying intent may not be to discriminate against foreign suppliers of goods and services. Whether preferential trade agreements (PTAs) can be justified in a multilateral trading system depends on the extent to which formal intergovernmental agreements are technically necessary to achieve the deep integration needed to make markets more contestable. The more need for formal cooperation, the stronger the case for regional integration. Whether PTAs are justified regionally also depends on whether efforts to reduce market segmentation are applied on a nondiscriminatory basis. If innovations to reduce transaction or market access costs extend to both members and nonmembers of a PTA, regionalism as an instrument of trade and investment becomes more attractive. Using a standard competitive general equilibrium model of the Egyptian economy, Hoekman and Konan find that the static welfare impact of a deep free trade agreement is far greater than the impact that can be expected from a classic shallow agreement. Under some scenarios, welfare may increase by more than 10 percent of GDP, compared with close to zero under a shallow agreement. Given Egypt's highly diversified trading patterns, a shallow PTA with the European Union could be merely diversionary, leading to a small decline in welfare. Egypt already has duty-free access to the European Union for manufactures, so the loss in tariff revenues incurred would outweigh any new trade created. Large gains in welfare from the PTA are conditional on eliminating regulatory barriers and red tape-in which case welfare gains may be substantial: 4 to 20 percent growth in real GNP. This paper-a product of the Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to analyze regional integration agreements. The authors may be contacted at bhoekman@@worldbank.org or konan@@hawaii.edu.

Impact of European Union Assocation Agreements on Mediterranean Countries

Impact of European Union Assocation Agreements on Mediterranean Countries PDF Author: Mr.Henri C. Ghesquière
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451942478
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 27

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Book Description
By establishing free trade for industrial products in 12 years, the European Union’s Association Agreements with countries in the Mediterranean region seek to promote accelerated economic growth. This paper reviews the literature and evaluates the economic benefits and costs for Tunisia, Morocco, Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan. It concludes that the benefits could be substantial, but only if accompanied by deep supplementary reforms, including extending trade liberalization to services and agriculture and on a multilateral basis, improving the environment for foreign direct investment, ensuring an adequate fiscal and exchange rate policy response, and strengthening European Union assistance.

A Global Integration Strategy for the Mediterranean Countries

A Global Integration Strategy for the Mediterranean Countries PDF Author: Mr.Oleh Havrylyshyn
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 9781557756473
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Book Description
The economy of the Mediterranean region countries - which in the present study include Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, as well as Israel and Turkey - experienced a period of strong and dynamic economic development in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But since the 1980s these economies have experienced a much less dynamic evolution and tended toward stagnation. This paper by Oleh Havrylyshyn, presents an assessment of the experience of these economies in a framework of a broad trade strategy perspective for Mediterranean countries, and examines prospects for the future.

Europe and the Mediterranean Economy

Europe and the Mediterranean Economy PDF Author: Joan Costa-i-Font
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415622735
Category : Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
With the creation of the Mediterranean partnership and the recent move towards the creation of the Union for the Mediterranean in 2008, a new emphasis is placed on the Mediterranean in the study of European Integration. This book brings together a collection of experts to address this important new area of study and discuss issues such as development, aid, labour, markets, human capital investment, Europeanization and institutional reform.

Deep Integration, Nondiscrimination, and Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade

Deep Integration, Nondiscrimination, and Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade PDF Author: Bernard Hoekman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 40

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Book Description


Towards a Union for the Mediterranean

Towards a Union for the Mediterranean PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 26

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Book Description
The study aims at studying the context in which the new 'Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean' initiative was adopted by the 27 EU Member States and its Mediterranean Partners and what can be expected from this new initiative in the trade and economic fields. Since 1995 it is obvious that progress was achieved in building a Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area as almost all Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements have been implemented. The multilateral dimension of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership: the Barcelona Process has also generated positive results such as the creation of a number of multilateral networks and institutions. The 2005 five years programme (2006-2009) adopted at the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Barcelona Process gave, in this regard, a new impetus to the multilateral cooperation. The issue of economic integration between the Mediterranean Partners is nevertheless still a major concern as little has been achieved at operational level. However, even if the Arab Maghreb Union process is still frozen, the creation of the Greater Arab Free Trade Area and the launching of the Agadir initiative are positive signs indicating that there is a renewed political will to address this crucial issue. The prospect of deeper Euro-Mediterranean integration implies a number of new challenges in the areas of trade in industrial and agricultural products and services. Deeper economic integration implies also the creation of new structures on the two shores of the Mediterranean. According to the European Commission the 'broader neighbourhood economic community' should be the long term vision and 'deep and comprehensive free trade agreements' could be envisaged in the future. The potential impact of deeper economic integration on key economic sectors should however not be underestimated. Also, the level of Foreign Direct Investment in the Mediterranean is still a major concern even if the new trends are a little bit more positive. The 'Barcelona process Union for the Mediterranean' is indeed an opportunity to consolidate the Barcelona acquis and to go forward with a deeper Euro-Mediterranean economic integration initiated with the launching of the European Neighbourhood Policy. The proposals made in the recent Communication of the European Commission and within the framework of the Paris Summit Declaration are however quite limited in the field of economic and trade relations as the three key elements of the new strategy are: i) To upgrade the political level of the EU's relationship with its Mediterranean Partners; ii) To provide for further co-ownership to the Euro-Mediterranean multilateral relations; and iii) To make these relations more concrete and visible through additional regional and sub-regional projects, relevant for the citizens of the region. Six projects have been identified by the Paris Joint Declaration but new initiatives are needed to reinvigorate the Barcelona Process. The architecture of the new institutional structure is to be further clarified in the coming months and it is still time to address some remaining shortcomings.

Perspectives on Development: the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership

Perspectives on Development: the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership PDF Author: George Joffe
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000949869
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Initiative, launched by the Barcelona Conference in 1995, is the most ambitious project to date directed at comprehensive prosperity and security in the Mediterranean region. Yet the assumptions on which it is based are untried and untested. This study seeks to analyse what they are and to draw some conclusions as to the potential of the Initiative for success by comparing it with other experiences of regional develoment.

Development Centre Seminars Towards Arab and Euro-Med Regional Integration

Development Centre Seminars Towards Arab and Euro-Med Regional Integration PDF Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 9264196072
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
This book examines the dynamics of open regionalism, the expansion of domestic markets from increased FDI and monetary stability, and the optimal mix of regional trade agreements.

Economic Growth in the Euro-Med Area Through Trade Integration

Economic Growth in the Euro-Med Area Through Trade Integration PDF Author: Pierre Boulanger
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789279338748
Category : Economic development
Languages : en
Pages : 50

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Book Description
This report presents the simulations of deeper economic integration in the Euro-Mediterranean area by applying the general equilibrium model MAGNET. The scenarios are conducted in order to provide insight about how growth in North Africa, specifically Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, could potentially be promoted. The focus is on the agri-food sectors, which are investigated in the context of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, framed within the negotiations of Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements (DCFTAs) between the European Union and respectively Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. The report also refers to Turkey, being a significant trading partner in the Mediterranean basin. Four scenarios are analysed in the horizon 2020, by paying special attention to key challenges such as non-tariff measure removal, world food price rising, productivity gains, and food waste mitigation.