Goods worth 42m euros exported after rules of origin amended

AMMAN — Ten companies benefitting from an agreement to simplify the rules of origin with the European Union (EU) have exported goods worth 42 million euros since the agreement came into force in 2016, according to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply. 

Fifteen companies received permits to benefit from the simplified rules of origin under the agreement, but only 10 of them, working in the plastic and metal, clothing, electrical devices and utilities industries, exported their products, ministry spokesperson Yanal Barmawi told The Jordan Times over the phone. 

“The export destinations include Spain, Cyprus, France, Belgium, Hungary, the Netherlands and Sweden,” Barmawi noted.

At the end of 2018, the deal included all companies across Jordan under new amendments.

Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Tareq Hammouri said in a press conference at the end of 2018 that the amendments eased Syrian refugees’ employment conditions, in addition to geographically expanding the agreement, which was previously restricted to 18 development and industrial zones.

Each industrial institution or production line allocated for exports must now employ Syrian refugees at no less than 15 per cent of their total workforce, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported at the time.