Effects of the application of detailed origin rules under the Greater Arab Free Trade Area (FTA) Status of non-agreed industrial products

Abstract

In the framework of the establishment of the Greater Arab Free Trade Area, "with a view to activating the Agreement on Trade facilitation and Development as well as its implementation programme, the Economic and Social Council has adopted a resolution implementing the general rules of origin of Arab goods starting from 01/01/1998. These rules were based on the following criteria: - The principle of total collection.- A general rule is to achieve a value added of at least 40% of the final value of the goods. Since the determination of origin through general rules does not differentiate between the specificities and sensitivities of the goods and the productive sectors, it was agreed that these requirements would be replaced by provisions consistent with the economic interests of the Arab States. To this destination, after several years of lengthy negotiations, it has not been possible to agree on the detailed rules of origin for certain goods, which the Member States of the Greater Arab Free trade area have agreed on the general rules of origin with a limit of 40% of origin. A number of goods that have been placed on the list (2), which include 17 commodity items for industrial and existing (3) agricultural commodities, include 8 commodity clauses.