Preferential Trade Agreements and Trade Liberalization Efforts in the OIC Member States
With Special Emphasis on the TPS-OIC
109
environmental protection, transportation, sports and commerce. ASEAN market opening to
China is to be especially in finance, telecommunication, education, tourism, construction and
medical treatment. The ASEAN-China Investment Agreement was signed in mid-2009 and
implemented since early 2010.
Table 17: China-ASEAN Services Commitments Compared to GATS/DDA (higher values
imply more services commitments)
China Brunei Darussalam Indonesia Malaysia
GATS 39.29 7.99 17.26 27.47
PTA 39.97 9.18 17.52 28.66
Note: The index score is brought within a scale of 0 to 100 for each sector, with 100
representing full commitments (i.e., without limitations) across all relevant sub-sectors. GATS
reflects the index value for both GATS commitments and services offer in the ongoing Doha
Development Agenda. The index value is for both mode 1 (cross-border trade) and mode 3
(commercial presence). Source: WTO Dataset of services commitments in regional trade
agreements (RTAs)
Jordan - EU FTA
In 1995, the so-called Barcelona process was launched between the EU and twelve Southern
and Eastern Mediterranean countries including Jordan. In 1997 Jordan was the first Mashrek
country to sign the Association Agreement with the EU, aiming inter alia to establish free trade
area with the EU. The agreement entered into force in 2002 and the implementation period
was 12 years. This agreement was deepened with a subsequent agreement on further
liberalisation of agricultural products which entered into force in 2007 and a protocol on
Dispute Settlement Mechanisms which entered into force in 2011. In 2012, preparatory talks
started on potential deep and comprehensive free trade agreement between the parties but
the formal negotiations have not yet commenced.
Rules of origin of the FTA follow the EU template (see discussion of the Agadir agreement for
more details). The agreement provides for bilateral cumulation, though diagonal cumulation is
also possible under the EU’s pan-European cumulation scheme.
Jordan has benefited from low tariff barriers to the EU even before the FTA with low MFN
tariffs and GSP preferences. Data presented in the table below suggest that simple average of
the effectively applied EU tariff was as low as 0.25% already in 2000. Moreover, EU
preferences under the FTA were phased in quickly - in the majority of cases this occurred at
the time of entry into force of the agreement (with some exceptions for certain agricultural and
food products). By 2011, all non-agricultural Jordanian exports to the EU were granted 100%