Brussels agreements address needs of Jordanians — Fakhoury

AMMAN — Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Imad Fakhoury has said that three out of the four outcomes of His Majesty King Abdullah’s visit to Brussels “had to do directly with the needs of Jordanians”.

In an interview with the Jordan TV (JTV) talk show Sixty Minutes, aired Friday night, the minister underlined the increase in EU assistance granted to Jordan, the launch of the new EU-Jordan negotiations on the new association agreement for the next four years and the simplified rules of origin, a key goal sought in the partnership with Europe.

The fourth deal was with NATO, which agreed to expand military support to Jordan through capacity-building programmes.

Fakhoury explained that negotiations on the new association agreement paves the way for the new development programme between Jordan and the EU, which focusses, among other goals, on economic empowerment of women and youth.

Fakhoury said: "The timing of the visit was very apt as part of the follow-up process on the outcomes of the London  conference. The visit followed up the implementation of EU commitments to Jordan in the conference."

"When we talk about the rules of origin …, the key target is to enhance Jordan's ability to attract new investments that generate new job opportunities to Jordanian youth and increase exports that strengthen the role of the private sector, which is the key engine of growth,” Fakhoury added. 

Fakhoury stressed that the free trade agreement with the EU is the backbone of the association agreement. Therefore, he added, Jordan’s approach in London conference regarding the burdens that it bears focussed on reviewing the rules of origin with the EU. 

“We managed to achieve this, just as we succeeded in all free trade agreements with Arab countries, Turkey, Canada and the USA. This will lead in increasing our exports and, based on these deals, additional investments will be attracted.”

In this context, he said, Jordan secured the union’s consent to simplify the rules of origin for 10 years. This is exceptionally given to Jordan and will eventually enable Jordanian products to have more than 70 per cent of production inputs from outside Jordan. 

This is extremely important, he said, as it will enable existing industries that want to take advantage of this system, or new investments in new industries and sectors, to benefit from the privileges made available and start exporting to EU countries. 

Fakhoury said that in partnership with the local private sector, the government began to identify the sectors and goods in industrial zones and development zones which will be chosen in this endeavour to simplify the rules of origin. 

“We tried to expand it to cover the biggest number of industrial and development zones in the Kingdom,” the minister told JTV.

Work on all Brussels agreements has already started in the Jordanian side, Fakhoury noted, explaining that concerned ministries began to work within a supervisory ministerial committee headed by the prime minister and technical committees. 

“There will be periodical and weekly meetings to follow up on the implementation of what we managed to achieve in Brussels, thanks to His Majesty’s efforts at London conference.”