Author: Guillaume Van der Loo

Series: CEPS researcher’s work published externally No of pp: 42 pp

This paper explores the potential scope and contents of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas (DCFTAs) that the EU is envisaging with Morocco and Tunisia. It reviews the current framework of these countries’ trade relationship with the EU and assesses the key principles and mechanisms of the DCFTAs. Using a comparative approach, the author analyses the potential scope and contents of the Tunisia and Morocco DCFTAs in the light of similar pacts that the EU has recently concluded with Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, scrutinising in particular the possible ‘deep’ and ‘comprehensive’ dimension of these trade deals. The impact of the General Court’s judgement of 10 December 2015 in Frente Polisario v. Council on the EU-Morocco DCFTA negotiations is also analysed.

Guillaume Van der Loo is Researcher in the Europe in the World research unit at CEPS. This paper was originally prepared in the context of the EuroMeSCo (Euro-Mediterranean Study Commission), a network of research centres created in 1996 to focus on politics and security in the Mediterranean. The paper was first presented at the EuroMeSCo Annual Conference in Milan on 8-9 October 2015, and is also available for free downloading on the EuroMeSCo website at www.euromesco.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2222%3Aeuromesco-paper-28-mapping-out-the-scope-and-contents-of-the-dcftas-with-tunisia-and-morocco-by-guillaume-van-der-loo&catid=61%3Aeuromesco-papers&Itemid=48&lang=en