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Trade Council
By Lénaïc Vaudin d’Imécourt
The Trade Council, scheduled to be held in Brussels on 14 December, will most likely agree to launch the scoping exercise for a deep and comprehensive free trade agreement (DCFTA) with Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Jordan. If the 27 trade ministers agree to the terms of this exercise, it will be launched with all for countries during the first three months of 2012, an EU source told Europolitics. The aim of the scoping exercise will be to assess the countries’ readiness to start negotiations on DCFTAs. The EU is the region’s top first trading partner: in 2010, total trade between the EU and the Southern Mediterranean was worth €141 billion (excluding Turkey). EU imports totalled €80 billion and exports €60 billion. This represented 40% of the Southern Mediterranean region’s total trade turnover. Trade with the region will be boosted once the FTAs are finalised with the four countries.
The ministers are also expected to agree on the terms of the EU’s adhesion to the anti-counterfeiting trade agreement (ACTA). Launched in 2008, the ACTA aims to reinforce intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement at a global level. The scope of ACTA includes counterfeit goods, copyright infringements on the internet and generic medicines. This plurilateral agreement, negotiated by the EU and certain WTO members, was signed in October 2011 in Tokyo by only a certain number of the negotiating parties. The EU did not sign the agreement on that date, but confirmed its readiness to join the agreement, which is open for signature until March 2013. Once the trade ministers agree, on 14 December, the new international legal framework will still have to be voted by the European Parliament, in 2012.
