The Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area and its Impact on the Economies Involved. Special edition Euro-Mediterranean Partnership. JMWP No. 16.98, October 1998

[Introduction]. The Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area envisaged by the Barcellona Declaration of November 1995 should be accomplished by 2010, and is currently being organized through the new Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements with partner countries. Up to now, treaties with Israel, Jordan, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority and Tunisia have been signed, and negotiations with other countries are well under way. Thus, it can be said that sufficient materials exist to give an accurate evaluation about the construction of the Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area (FTA). The paper argues that although the FTA has been conceived without fully considering all of its consequences, and actually restricting free trade only to some products, it can encourage growth on both the shores of the Mediterranean, provided that the EU adequately participate to the funding of structural change in the South, and that partner countries agree to improve domestic policies and to integrate their economies reciprocally. The structure of the FTA and its asymmetries are examined first, while policy implications for partner countries are looked at later. Finally, an analysis of possible future options is made.