North Africa
EU-Morocco trade deal annulment should be overturned
The European Union ' s top court should set aside a judgment invalidating a farm trade accord between the EU and Morocco , an adviser to the court said on Tuesday , offering a potential resolution to a diplomatic clash between the two .
The General Court of the European Union , the EU ' s second-highest court , ruled in December that the trade deal was void after a suit filed by the Polisario Front , which wants independence for the disputed territory of Western Sahara . The court held that the EU had failed to examine whether a deal would affect the exploitation of natural resources in the Moroccan-controlled territory . That ruling prompted Morocco to suspend contact with EU institutions for four weeks and the EU to lodge a legal appeal .
Advocate General Melchior Wathelet said on Tuesday that Western Sahara was not part of Morocco so neither the 2000 EU-Morocco Association Agreement nor the 2012 EU-Morocco Agreement on liberalisation of trade in agricultural and fishery products applied to the territory .
If the trade agreements were declared valid by the European Court of Justice , the EU and Morocco should avoid a repeat of the diplomatic clash at the start of this year . Opinions by the advocate general are not binding , but EU court judges follow them in the majority of cases . The EU and Morocco have struck agreements allowing duty-free quotas for agricultural products such as tomatoes and granting access for European vessels to fish in Moroccan waters in return for financial assistance . The two sides also began negotiations in 2013 to form a deeper and broader free trade agreement . Morocco has controlled most of Western Sahara since 1975 and claims sovereignty over the sparsely populated stretch of desert to its south , which has offshore fishing as well as phosphate and possibly oil reserves .
But its annexation of the region led to a rebellion by the Polisario Front backed by Morocco ' s neighbour Algeria . The Front and Morocco have been at loggerheads ever since . – Rtr
Devaluation would boost Egyptian exports by 10 pct
Egyptian exports would rise by 10 percent if and when authorities devalue the pound , said Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Kabil .
Pressure has been mounting on the central bank to devalue the currency as Egypt struggles to revive an economy hit by political unrest that has driven away tourists and foreign investors - both major sources of hard currency . The bank has been responding to the crisis by rationing dollars , giving priority to imports of essential goods and to exporters who need to import raw material for manufacturing .
Its policy of keeping the pound artificially strong has seen foreign currency reserves tumble from $ 36 billion before a mass uprising in 2011 to around $ 16.5 billion in August . " If and when a devaluation happens it will help trade on both sides , limiting imports and boosting exports ... We expect it could boost exports by 10 percent ," Kabil told a Euromoney conference . Egypt ' s trade deficit was 24.6 percent smaller in May compared with a year earlier , the statistics agency said last month .
The trade deficit was 25.2 billion Egyptian pounds ($ 2.8 billion ), down from 33.4 billion in the same month a year earlier . – Rtr
12 Business Times Africa 2016