European markets still closed to Lebanese products despite the EU-partnership agreement

The Minister of Industry, Dr. Hussein Hajj Hassan, chaired last week a workshop aimed to evaluate the Partnership agreement with Europe, which was signed in 2002 and entered into full effect in 2014.  According to the Minister, when the agreement was signed, it was accompanied by promises indicating that Lebanese exporters will be able to enter into a huge market of over 300 million consumers.  The Minister wondered however whether Lebanese was truly able to penetrate these markets and to increase its exports during that period.  The Minister further questioned whether EU markets were effectively open to Lebanon as a result of this agreement or whether on the contrary there are more obstacles now facing Lebanese products wishing to enter the European markets.  Other specific questions the Minister raised during the workshop focused around the persisting European ban on Lebanese dairy products and pharmaceuticals.   The Minister skeptically asked whether Lebanon really benefited economically from this agreement in the same way as Europe benefited.  He added that Lebanon cannot persist with the present course of continuous deficit in the balance of trade and called for the need to identify goals to overcome the economic crisis namely bringing down the deficit of the balance of trade to USD 10 billion, by increasing exports, while creating some 100000 new work opportunities to encourage people to remain in their homeland and in order to curtail internal and external migration. (An Nahar 19 February 2016)