Proposal for a Council Decision on the position to be adopted, on behalf of the European Union, in the Association Committee established by the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement establishing an Association between the European Communities and their Member States, of the one part, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, of the other part, as regards an amendment to Protocol 3 to that Agreement concerning the definition of the concept of ‘originating products’ and methods of administrative cooperation

The framework for bilateral trade relations between the European Union and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is provided by the EU-Jordan Association Agreement, which entered into force on 1 May 2002. The Association Agreement establishes a free trade area under which Jordan enjoys very extensive preferential access to the EU, with only a very limited number of products not entitled to enter the EU market on a duty and quota free basis.

The protracted civil conflict in Syria has created a complex and serious humanitarian challenge in the region since it is estimated that over half of the Syrian population has now been forcibly displaced, with several million having fled across the borders into neighbouring states. The scale of displacement and the increasingly protracted nature of the Syrian conflict have had a dramatic impact on neighbouring host states, including Jordan.

Jordan is currently hosting 1.265 million Syrians, including 639,000 UNHCR-registered refugees which overall represents around 20 percent of its pre-crisis population. This represents a significant challenge and burden for the country. This influx of refugees has constituted a major economic shock, and represents a potential source of fragility. From the beginning of the Syrian crisis the EU, together with other donors, has offered significant amounts of humanitarian and other developmental aid to Jordan.

It is in this context that Jordan has presented to the EU proposals for a holistic approach to turn the Syrian refugee crisis into a development opportunity, with mutual benefits for Jordan and for Syrian refugees. These proposals are based on the idea of creating additional employment and other economic opportunities for Syrian refugees presently in Jordan, alongside steps by Jordan to promote investment and facilitate refugee participation in the formal economy. These are expected to create spill-over benefits for the wider Jordanian economy as well as the future post-conflict Syrian economy. Jordan's proposals consist of a set of practical measures to attract investment and generate economic activity in selected development zones within Jordan.

Jordan looks to the international community - and in particular to the EU - to support its efforts in this direction. One important element of Jordan's proposals that is intended to contribute to achieving this target is a request directed to the EU for a relaxation of the preferential rules of origin applicable in bilateral trade in order to attract more investment to the country for productive activities aiming at the EU market. Jordan considers that the preferential rules of origin provided for in the Association Agreement act in practice as an obstacle to the development of its trade with the EU.

The Commission has considered Jordan's request and proposes in response a time-limited and targeted initiative to support Jordan through facilitated access to the EU market. This will take the form of a temporary relaxation of the rules of origin laid down in Protocol 3 of the Association Agreement. This relaxation will cover a selected number of products of interest for Jordan and will be made available to producers in Jordan as an alternative to the existing rules. The relaxation would in a first stage be subject to certain conditions which aim at ensuring that the benefit of the relaxation is available only to exporters which are directly contributing to the goal of ensuring additional employment of Syrian refugees.

EUR-Lex: COM(2016)403: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2016:403:FIN

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