European Union provides 433,000 Euros to help facilitate Palestinian trade

Sunday December 16, 2007 00:33 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC News

The European Union (EU) signed an agreement Saturday with the Palestine Trade Center and the Palestinian Shippers’ Council, to help promote Palestinian trade with neighboring Arab countries and improve market access for Palestinian products.

Flags of the European Union nations

Speaking at the official launch of the project in Jerusalem, Mr. John Kjaer, Representative of the European Commission in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, said that the EU believed that greater economic integration could provide the foundation for peace and prosperity. He stressed that this project fell within the scope of wide-scale European assistance to help promote Palestinian trade, noting that the EU had “drastically scaled up such support in recent years.”

The project, which is worth 432,614 Euros, will last for 17 months. The first phase of the project will involve comprehensive research, to assess the capacity of, and identify improvements for, existing trade corridors into Egypt and Jordan. The private sector will be heavily involved in this research phase, providing in-depth analysis of the current situation, and recommendations for the future.

The second component of the project will focus on engaging the Palestinian and Israeli public sectors, as well as officials in third countries (Jordan, Egypt), to promote policies and measures that will help to facilitate trade. The project will also produce an Export Information Guide on trade logistics for the use of Palestinian exporters. In addition, it will provide logistical cost analysis on importing from Egypt and Jordan.

A number of aid organizations and the World Bank have made statements in recent days that investments in the Palestinian economy are useless unless Israel changes its policy of occupation and closure of the Palestinian territories, which impacts all aspects of Palestinian life and has created an unemployment rate of over 80%.

international | palestinian politics | news report saed at imemc dot org