Written answers

Wednesday, 18 January 2023

Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment

Trade Agreements

Photo of Chris AndrewsChris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein)
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13. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his Department supports current aspects of the EU-Morocco trade agreement as they relate to the natural resources of Western Sahara; and if he will call for the resources of Western Sahara to be excluded from EU-Moroccan deals moving forward. [63227/22]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, trade policy is a competence of the European Commission under Article 207 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and referred to as the Common Commercial Policy.

The EU and Morocco established a Free Trade Area as part of the EU-Morocco Association Agreement, signed in 1996, which entered into force on 1 March 2000. The EU and Morocco also signed an Agreement on additional liberalisation of trade in agricultural products, processed agricultural products, and fish and fisheries products, which entered into force in October 2012.

Both parties agreed upon a protocol establishing a Dispute Settlement Mechanism, which entered into force in 2012. Negotiations for a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) started in 2013. The last negotiating round was held in April 2014.

The EU-Morocco Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (FPA), concluded in March 2019, allocates fishing opportunities for the EU in exchange for an overall financial contribution of €208 million. A substantial part of this contribution is used to promote the sustainable development of the fisheries economy in Morocco and the Western Sahara.

The question of the territorial applicability of certain EU-Morocco agreements is the subject of ongoing legal consideration at the European level. Ireland notes the October 2021 European Court of Justice ruling that annulled the EU’s previous approval of agriculture and fishing agreements that allowed Morocco to export goods from Western Sahara. That decision is currently being appealed. Ireland will await the outcome of this process and, together with our EU partners, give careful consideration to the decision reached.

More broadly, Ireland’s long-held position is that Western Sahara is a non-self-governing territory. We support the United Nations Security Council Resolutions, which support the right to self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.

Finally, in 2021, under the new EU Trade Policy Review, the EU has offered to discuss modernising trade and investment relations with Morocco, to better adapt them to today’s challenges, notably in respect of value chains and the greening and digitalisation of respective economies.

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