Greater Arab Free Trade Area
The GAFTA - Greater Arab Free Trade Area ( Arabic منطقة التجارة العربية الحرة الكبرى, DMG Minṭaqat at-tiǧāra al-ʿarabiyya al-ḥurra al-kubrā 'Greater Arab Free Trade Area') - is based on a free trade agreement between the states of the Arab League , beginning January 1, 2005.
The free trade area was created in 1997 by 14 of the 22 member states of the Arab League (namely Egypt , Bahrain , Iraq , Qatar , Kuwait , Lebanon , Libya , Morocco , Oman , Saudi Arabia , Sudan , Syria , Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates ) on one Meeting founded in Amman and has since been promoted by the Economic and Social Council of the Arab League . The establishment of the GAFTA followed the adoption of an "Agreement for the Facilitation and Development of Trade between Arab States" (Agreement of Tunis of February 27, 1981), which was linked to the GAFTA Agreement (Resolution No. 1317 Section 59 of the Economic and Social Council of the Arab League on February 19, 1997) was approved by 17 member states of the Arab League at a 1997 meeting in Amman. Algeria followed suit in 2004 by presidential decree and was admitted to GAFTA in 2009 with some delay.
An integral part of the agreement was the continuous reduction in tariffs between countries in the Arab League, with tariffs being reduced by 10% annually. Particular attention was paid to reducing tariffs on products that are originally produced in the Arab world.
A milestone was the Agadir Agreement between Jordan , Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco of February 25, 2004 (decided in Rabat , Morocco) for which there are more extensive regulations in the GAFTA exceptions.
The GAFTA economic area, with 280 million inhabitants and an aggregate gross national product of 1.3 trillion US dollars (based on 2004), is one of the largest free trade zones worldwide. The trade volume of GAFTA includes 96% of the trade volume within the Arab League and 95% of the common foreign trade. The GAFTA provides important prerequisites for a Euro-Mediterranean free trade area (EMFZ), as it is aimed for by 2010 within the framework of the European Neighborhood Policy . Meanwhile, the Arab League decided to extend the Agadir Agreement to all 22 member states by 2015 and to form a common economic area (with central administration) by 2025.
Current member states are Algeria , Bahrain , Egypt , Iraq , Jordan , Kuwait , Lebanon , Libya , Morocco , Oman , Palestine , Qatar , Saudi Arabia , Sudan , Syria , Tunisia , United Arab Emirates and Yemen .
Candidate countries are: Comoros , Djibouti , Mauritania and Somalia .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Javad Abedini, Nicolas Péridy: The Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA): An Estimation of the Trade Effects . Preliminary version. 2007, accessed on November 28, 2011, (PDF; 192 kB).
- ^ Tamer Mohamed Ahmed Afifi: The Challenge of Implementing the Overlapping Regional Trade Agreements in Egypt. Cuvillier Verlag, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86727-328-2 (also: Erlangen-Nürnberg, Univ., Diss., 2007), online (PDF; 1.2 MB) .
- ^ Agreement to Facilitate and Develop Trade among Arab States ( Memento of April 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English) PDF
- ↑ GAFTA agreement (Arabic) DOC
- ↑ Algerian presidential decree for inclusion in the GAFTA ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (French) PDF
