Jordan, Britain talk economic cooperation

AMMAN — Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Yarub Qudah on Saturday discussed with British Trade Envoy to Jordan, Kuwait and Palestine Lord Iain McNicol ways to enhance economic and trade cooperation within the framework of the bilateral partnership agreement signed in 2021.

The two sides, in presence of British Ambassador to Jordan Philip Hall, went over progress in implementing the agreement, in terms of streamlining rules of origin and developing the government structure to monitor its provisions by launching a partnership council and its technical committees, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Qudah noted the need to address challenges related to the "complexities" of the rules of origin and the "high" costs of compliance and export, compared with the facilitations granted by the UK to competing countries under the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) programme.

Qudah called for reviewing the current terms of the "simplified" rules of origin decision to ensure Jordanian products have "preferential" access to British markets. 

For his part, McNicol stressed his country's "keenness" to expand economic cooperation with Jordan, underlining his country's support for developing the Kingdom's investment environment and enhancing trade exchange through sustainable initiatives, including support for small and medium-sized enterprises and stimulating British investment in Jordan's "vital" productive sectors.

On future action, both sides agreed on the "importance" of accelerating the pace of work to organise the upcoming Jordanian-British Business Forum.

The ministry said that the event would serve as a platform to boost partnerships in the two countries' private sectors and explore "new" cooperation opportunities, Petra added.