Lebanon a looser in trade with EU and incapable of competing because of fraud

The economic and strategic expert Professor Jassem Ajaqa pointed out that Lebanon will lose as a result of the draft law backing the endorsement of the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement within the framework of the Euro-Med Partnership on removing barriers to trade and investment between involved countries. The draft legislation which was approved on June 21 by the Parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee aims at ensuring the real origin of the exported goods between the member countries in an attempt to control contraventions that affect the export of goods to Europe and the Mediterranean countries. According to the expert, Lebanon will not be able to abide by agreement particularly in view of widespread fraud practices involving merchandise imported from Brazil and entering Lebanon without customs through certain Arab Gulf states. To recall, the Euro-Med Partnership Agreement was initiated back in 1995 as proposed by Spain to create a Euro-Mediterranean free trade area, involving cooperation in numerous sectors, mainly, security, promoting democracy, good governance and human rights. It also calls for the development of preferential provisos for trade exchange between all member countries which include those of the EU, and 16 other countries of the region, including Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Palestine. Concerning Lebanese-European trade relation, Ajaqa cited figures released by the Ministry of Industry which showed  that EU exports to Lebanon in the period from 2000 to 2016 have risen from USD 2 billion to USD 8.5 billion while Lebanese exports to the EU countries have increased from USD 200 million to USD 300 million during the same period. Furthermore, Ajaqa underlined that the Lebanese market embraces some 4 million consumers against some 500 million for the EU. (An Nahar, June 28, 2016)