Catching Up With Eastern Europe? The European Union's Mediterranean Free Trade Initiative

Simeon Djankov and Bernard Hoekman

No 1300, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper discusses the potential role of a Euro-Mediterranean Agreement (EMA) in helping Middle East and North African governments implement structural economic reforms. The arguments for and against preferential liberalization are summarized, identifying a number of necessary conditions for an EMA to benefit a Mediterranean country. The recently negotiated EMA between Tunisia and the EU is evaluated, using these conditions as criteria. Some doubts are expressed whether an EMA, by itself, will be enough to help countries in the region 'catch up'. Significant supporting and complementary actions are likely to be needed. Key issues in this connection are the regulatory regimes applying to inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and the service sector; a reduction in tariffs applied to the rest of the world; and the imposition of hard budget constraints on state-owned enterprises. These aspects are not subject to disciplines under the EMA.

Keywords: Economic Adjustment; Restructuring; Trade Liberalization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 O12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1995-11
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=1300 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: Catching Up With Eastern Europe? The European Union's Mediterranean Free Trade Initiative (1996)
Working Paper: Catching up with Eastern Europe? The European Union's Mediterranean free trade initiative (1996)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:1300

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/ ... ers/dp.php?dpno=1300

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().