By: Lamia Nabil
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) will continue to support the implementation of the Agadir agreement.
The Agadir agreement was signed in the city of Rabat, Morocco on 25 February 2004, between Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.
The agreement became active after completing ratification requirements in July 2006, and was implemented after the publishing of customs circulars for the four member states on March 2007, with total combined traded domestic products of nearly €200bn, and a pool 120 million people in this market.
The Agadir agreement aims at establishing a free trade area between the four countries. The agreement is also a crucial step towards the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean free trade area and the only south-south free trade agreement linked to the Barcelona process 1995. The agreement included liberalising trade for industrial products, agricultural and processed agricultural products, and trade in services.
In order to support and achieve the objectives of the Agadir agreement, a meeting will be organised on 4 March 2013 gathering officials from the four member states representing the ministries of trade and standardisation organisations as well as representatives from Sida and the Agadir Technical Unit (ATU)
Two cooperation agreements will be signed at the meeting, one between SIDA and ATU and the other between Swedac and ATU. The cooperation aims to support quality infrastructure in the four member states. Financial and technical assistance projects will be provided through Swedac to enhance the conformity assessment sector in Agadir countries.
