Ammon News - Minister of Industry, Trade, and Supply, Yarub Qudah, discussed with the British Trade Envoy to Jordan, Kuwait, and Palestine, Lord Iain McNicol, ways to enhance joint economic and trade cooperation within the framework of the bilateral partnership agreement signed in 2021.

According to a ministry statement on Saturday, the two sides, in presence of British Ambassador to Jordan, Philip Hall, went over progress in implementing the agreement, in terms of streamlining rules of origin and developing the government structure to monitor its provisions by launching Partnership Council and its technical committees.

Qudah noted the need to address challenges related to the complexities of the rules of origin and the high costs of compliance and export, compared to the facilitations granted by the United Kingdom to competing countries under the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) program.

Qudah called for reviewing the current terms of the simplified rules of origin decision to ensure Jordanian products have "preferential" access to British markets.

For his part, McNicol affirmed his country's "keenness" to expand economic cooperation with Jordan, underlining his country's support for developing the Kingdom's investment environment and enhancing trade exchange through sustainable initiatives, including support for small and medium-sized enterprises and stimulating British investment in Jordan's "vital" productive sectors.

On future action, both sides agreed on the importance of accelerating the pace of work to organize the upcoming Jordanian-British Business Forum.

The statement said the event would serve as a platform to strengthen bilateral partnerships in the two countries' private sectors and explore "new" cooperation opportunities. Petra