“That’s one of the benefits I’ve been pushing for as part of the United Kingdom renegotiation and so I’m delighted that the European Commission has committed today to push ahead with ambitious agreements with China, Australia, New Zealand and countries in South East Asia and to do more to ensure that SMEs and consumers across Europe can benefit from these trade agreements”.
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“The aim of the agreement is to improve market access opportunities and the investment climate and support ongoing economic reforms in Tunisia”, says the European Commission.
This is the first time that the European Commission openly expressed its intention to negotiate with Taiwan on investment.
“This agreement… will be beneficial for Tunisia and introduce economic opportunities”, she told reporters.
“The agreement will build on the existing free trade area under the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement, which was signed 20 years ago but mainly focused on trade in goods”, it added.
The strategy to make trade policy more effective and transparent and rooted in values such as sustainable development and human rights is a response to heated protests against the planned EU-U.S. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Economist Abdelbasset Sammari said that Tunisia risks loosing 40 percent of its firms if the DCFTA is implemented.
In a joint press conference Lahouel said that the EU’s negotiating team will be in Tunisia 19-30 October.
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The new strategy comes as New Zealand renews its own desire for closer trade relations with Europe, and Prime Minister John Key will travel to Brussels later this month to meet with Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker to push the country’s case for a free trade deal. Trade was dominated by machinery and transport equipment but also included textiles, clothing, fuels and mining products.
