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Employment challenges and EU ROO agreement

Dec 05,2016 - Last updated at Dec 05,2016

Several obstacles still stand in the way of exporting Jordanian products under the preferential access to the EU market.

Among these obstacles is the requirement that Syrian labour constitute no less than 15 per cent of the workforce in qualifying factories in the declared economic zones.

This, in fact, represents an obstacle that is likely to take some time to overcome due to the prevailing objective conditions: most economic zones are far from the areas of residence of refugees; most refugees come with agriculture and services skills (as opposed to industrial) as they come from the rural parts of Syria; and industrialists tend to be quite satisfied with foreign labour from other countries, which is low wage and available (estimated at 800,000 legal and illegal economic migrants).

For the above reasons, realising the 15 per cent Syrian workforce, while not insurmountable, will be difficult.

This has already opened the door for a subtle blame game between the private sector, the public sector and the donor community.

Blame is even targeted at the refugees themselves for not seeking formal jobs in the industry, relying instead on direct financial aid and working in the informal sector.

Such finger pointing is not helpful; it simply lays blame without solving the problem.

Examining the “conditions” approved in July 2016, one can see actually two, not one, tracks for meeting the Syrian labour requirements.

One is meeting the 15 per cent rate above, which will become 25 per cent after three years. The other is to reach the target of 200,000 Syrian workers in Jordan as a whole, after which the 15 per cent requirement on a factory-by-factory basis becomes null and void.

Once that number is reached, all Jordanian firms can benefit from the simplified rules of origin (ROO) status, and not just the specified economic zones.

Well, recent surveys suggest that Syrians currently working in Jordan indeed exceed the 200,000 number. The problem is that they work mostly in the informal sector as day labourers in agriculture, construction, services and retail. 

Formalising these workers’ status through work permits will enable Jordan to reach the 200,000 target, provide legal protection to these workers and enable Jordanian firms to export to the EU.

Realising this target might be easier than the 15 per cent per factory target. After all, this target involves legalising and formalising what the economy is already doing, as opposed to forcing workers and employers to fit into a mould that well-intentioned bureaucrats came up with.

For the above track of formalising the 200,000 Syrians to work, all sides have to think creatively and outside the box.

The government should issue work permits directly to Syrians and not through employers. Otherwise, and given the nature of work done by Syrians, as day workers, the process will be corrupted by middlemen charging money by deceitfully claiming to be employers.

The EU should recognise that this is the best way to capture the real contribution of Syrian workers to the Jordanian economy, through all the backward and forward linkages to exporting Jordanian industries.

Most importantly, this approach is not based on wishful thinking; rather, on the situation, which reflects realistic job opportunities that can be improved upon through more formalisation.

Making this track work will require thinking “outside the box” by both Jordanian and EU officials, as well as continuing to take into consideration the fact that priority should be given unemployed Jordanians.

But we all know that when there is a will there is a way.

Ensuring the utilisation of the simplified rules of origin is in the interest of all sides. 

It is not a favour and not an act of philanthropy towards Jordan, as the EU has every interest in developing a successful model for productive export-oriented economies south of the Mediterranean that stems migration to Europe.

Jordan also has every interest to break the economic blockade it is facing in a troubled neighbourhood and to leap to bigger, more sophisticated and stable markets.

Finally, Syrian refugees have every interest to not become reliant on handouts.

Let us not forget that Syrians are hard-working entrepreneurial people who are eager to build skills and find legitimate work and a source of income that keeps them and their children away from crime and extremism, and that is also in everyone’s interest.

The writer is chairman of the Jordan Strategy Forum. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.

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