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OVERVIEW OF SELECTED MENA ECONOMIES 29


• Amber box expenditures include those for subsidies on agricultural inputs such as fertilizers and irrigation, as well as price supports for agricultural production. Under de minimis exemptions, product-specific subsidies are permitted if they are less than 5 percent of the value of the output of the commodity, and non-product-specific subsidies are permitted if they are less than 5 percent of the value of all agricultural output. The value of nonexempt amber box expenditures is called the aggregate measurement of support. Some 30 countries declared this support spending and made commitments to reduce it over 1995–2001.


Developing countries are given “special and differential treatment” in


that their de minimis exemption is 10 percent rather than 5 percent and they had ten years (1995–2005) to reduce their aggregate measurement of support spending. In addition, the LDCs are not required to cap or reduce such sup- port spending.


With the exception of Syria and the West Bank and Gaza, all MENA countries are members of or in the process of accession to the WTO (Table 2.10). As developing countries, the MENA countries that are WTO members have been given greater flexibility under the URAA with regard to cutting their subsidies and lowering their tariffs: the average cuts for all agricul- tural products are two-thirds the rates of developed countries. The MENA countries in the WTO were also given more time to meet their commit-


Table 2.10 MENA countries’ trade agreements outside the MENA region, 2009


Country WTO status Djibouti Member (1995) Jordan


Egypt


Lebanon Morocco


Syria Nonmember Tunisia


West Bank Nonmember and Gaza


European Union EBA


Member (1995) EMAA (2004) + ENP Member (2000) EMAA (2002) + ENP Observer


Member (1995) EMAA (2000) + ENP Initialized


Member (1995) EMAA (1998) + ENP Interim AA (1997) + ENP


Sources: WTO website; USTR (2006); European Commission (2009). Notes: AGOA, African Growth and Opportunity Act; EBA, Everything But Arms initiative; EFTA, European Free Trade Association (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway, and Switzer- land); EMAA, Euro-Med Association Agreement; ENP, European Neighborhood Policy; MEFTA, Middle East Free Trade Area (includes other members such as Bahrain, Israel, and Oman); TIFA, Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (within MEFTA); WTO, World Trade Organization.


Interim AA (2003) + ENP


United States


AGOA


MEFTA TIFA EFTA (2007) MEFTA FTA EFTA (2002) EFTA (2007)


MEFTA FTA EFTA (2004) MEFTA TIFA EFTA (2005/6) Other


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