Press Release: EU to open farm trade talks with Euro-Med countries

The European Union has agreed to open negotiations with its Euro-Mediterranean partners to further open up trade in fresh and processed agricultural and fisheries products. The aim of the talks is to achieve wide-ranging trade liberalisation by 2010, as foreseen in the ‘Barcelona Declaration’ signed in 1995. The negotiations will cover all products as well as non-trade aspects such as rural development, technical barriers to trade, sanitary issues and quality policy. They must also take account of the particular sensitivity of certain products in both the EU and the Euro-Med countries.