The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply will launch a plan on Wednesday to promote the use of new facilities to simplify the rules of origin in partnership with the European Union to increase national exports to these countries.

The source, who asked not to be named, told Al Ghad that the preparation of the plan comes in light of the modest use of Jordanian companies by the agreement to simplify the rules of origin despite the Kingdom obtaining additional facilities at the end of last year.

He explained that the plan includes several axes, Industrial facilities and how to benefit from them in increasing exports to Europe.

The source pointed to the existence of axes of the plan include providing technical support to industrial companies wishing to export to Europe, especially in terms of specifications and requirements to enter these markets in partnership with experts in this area.

He explained that the ministry will carry out periodic review procedures within the indicators of measurement to strengthen the strengths and address weaknesses, if any, stressing the government's keenness to make use of the new facilities on the agreement simplifying the rules of origin15 %.

At the end of last year, the European Union announced further concessions on the terms of the agreement of simplification of the rules of origin signed between Jordan and the European Union in 2016. The Agreement covers all the existing factories in the Kingdom after being confined to 18 specialized industrial zones and maintaining the employment ratio Syria at 15%. The agreement was extended to 2030 instead of 2026.

The agreement also included reducing the total number of jobs "required to provide Syrian refugees legally and effectively" from 200,000 to 60,000 jobs at least in various economic sectors. Following the requirement of 60,000 jobs for Syrians in a legal and effective manner, the requirement to employ 15% of the workforce in any factory wishing to export to Europe is automatically cancelled.

In spite of these facilities, the total number of companies that were able to export through this agreement reached 6 out of 13 companies that were granted the mandate to benefit from the export decision by simplifying the rules of origin since the entry into force of this agreement in 2016 according to data issued by the ministry. The companies that obtained the delegation and exported are operating in different sectors, mainly plastics, metal industries, clothing and cables.

He attributed the industrialists in previous statements to "tomorrow" weak use of this agreement to the absence of campaigns to identify industrial companies with technical requirements and other procedures that enable access to European markets and weak campaigns to promote Jordanian products within these markets.

They stressed the need for studies to identify the industrial products that have the opportunity to enter the markets of each European country in addition to activating the role of economic diplomacy by giving directives to the embassies located in European countries to be a link between the industrial chambers and major European companies.

The latest statistics show that the value of national exports during the first half of this year increased by 2.4% to reach 48.6 million dinars compared to 49.8 million dinars compared to the same period last year.

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