Different roads to liberalisation: scenarios for a Moroccan case study of the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements

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Although the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) in spirit aims at fostering economic growth and stability at the southern periphery of the EU, the contents of the trade agreements reflect the more narrow economic interests of specific, southern EU member states (dell'Aquila & Kuiper, 2003). Key characteristics of the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements (EMAAs) are an asymmetric focus on liberalising trade in the manufactured goods of the MPCs, while maintaining trade barriers on agricultural products. Several studies have quantified the expected impact of the proposed Mediterranean free trade area. A review of recent studies indicated that several characteristic features of the MPCs and the EMAAs are missing in existing analyses (Kuiper, 2004). This paper therefore focuses on identifying scenarios for further research that reflect key policy and research issues identified in an earlier study (dell'Aquila and Kuiper, 2003), while accounting for the gaps in existing analyses as identified in Kuiper (2004). Although limited to analysing the specific case of Morocco, the scenarios defined in this paper refer to issues that are relevant for all Mediterranean partner countries.