MERCOSUR- Jordan FTA

Agreed Minutes

MERCOSUR- Jordan FTA

II Round of Negotiations

Buenos Aires, April 14-16, 2010

Pursuanttoarticle (2) of the Framework Agreement between MERCOSUR and Jordan, both parties held the II Round of Negotiations in Buenos Aires on April 14-16, 2010 to negotiate the establishment of a Free Trade Area.

The Jordanian Delegation was headed by H.E. Dr. Montaser Oklah, Secretary General of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

The MERCOSUR Delegation was headed by H.E. Minister Pompeyo Carlos Layús, Direction of MERCOSUR from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship of the Argentine Republic.

The members of MERCOSUR and the Jordanian delegations are listed in Annexes 1 and 2.

The agreed agenda included the following issues:

1. -Discussion on MERCOSUR’s proposed draft Agreement.

Both Parties considered the draft agreement sent by MERCOSUR on 15 December, 2008, and held fruitful discussions about the clarifications requested by Jordan.

Both Parties agreed to work with a single undertaking approach to conduct the negotiation.

The two Parties discussed the text of the Agreement and accomplished progress in a number of issues. Pending issues that need further discussions have been highlighted in the draft text of the Agreement with remarks, attached as Annex 3.

In regards to MERCOSUR’s proposal on SPS and TBT chapters, the Jordan Delegation considered that these chapters should be reconsidered and reviewed, and the Parties should refer to the appropriate WTO Agreements in this regard. The Parties will revert to this issue during the next Round.

2. - Rules of Origin

The Parties made progress regarding these issues and agreed to continue working on the next Round of Negotiations.A new draft is attached asAnnex 4.

4. - Schedule of Future Work:

15 May 2010: both Parties will exchange their respective applied tariffs and international trade statistics (at an 8 digit level) for the 2007-2009 period in Excel file format.

3 August 2010: both Parties will exchange their initial tariff offers according to article 3, chapter II of the draft Agreement.

Last week of September 2010 (to be confirmed): III Round of Negotiations will be held in Jordanwith working groups on:

-Initial Provisions, Trade in Goods, SPS, TBT, Institutional Provisions, Technical and Technological Cooperation, Final Provisions, and Initial Tariff Offers

-Rules of Originand Customs Cooperation

-Dispute Settlement and Safeguard Measures

Done in two original copies in English and signed in Buenos Aireson 16 April 2010.