Meeting of the Secretary General of the UfM and the Executive President of the Agadir Technical Unit

Barcelona, 18 March 2019. The Secretary General of the UfM, Nasser Kamel, met today with Fakhry Alhazaimeh, the Executive President of the Agadir Technical Unit (ATU) responsible for the Trade Technical issues related to the Arab Mediterranean Free Trade Agreement (Agadir Agreement).

The UfM Secretary General Kamel highlighted the importance and the opportunities of trade liberalization between the Mediterranean partners. He encouraged to continue the positive efforts among the members of the Agadir Agreement in terms of south-south and south-north trade integration, which also lead to the political decision to enlarge the membership of the Agreement to two additional members, Lebanon and Palestine.

The UfM Secretary General also mentioned that trade related assistance is key to supporting the efforts of the UfM Member States in the pursuit, adoption and implementation of policies, which reflect today’s business patterns and needs. In that respect, he expressed the intentions of the UfM Secretariat – in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) – to support the organization of technical trainings for the UfM Member States in the area of trade policy. In the pilot phase, these trainings would be directed to ministries, customs authorities and businesses in the Agadir Member States.

During the meeting, Alhazaimeh praised the ongoing collaboration between the UfM Secretariat and the ATU, notably under the UfM label led project titled Agadir SME Programme: Fostering SME competitiveness and trade in the Agadir Agreement member countries.