Lebanese Republic 
EFTA
اقرأ باللغة العربية
The EFTA-Lebanon Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
A first joint sub committee meeting between Lebanon and the EFTA states (European Free Trade Association) took place on July 4, 2002 in Geneva at the EFTA offices. The talks focused on the economic and trade developments in Lebanon and the EFTA states. The Joint Sub-Committee indicated that negotiations on and EFTA-Lebanon Free Trade Agreement could start in the first quarter of 2003. Lebanon and the EFTA states first initiated talks back in 1997 by signing a Declaration on Co-operation. The declaration calls for building on already existing forms of co-operation between the two parties with the aim of creating legal and economic preconditions necessary for the gradual establishment of a free trade area. The present members of EFTA are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
Negotiations on the EFTA-Lebanon Free Trade Agreement were formally launched in Beirut in April 2003 and were concluded in Montreux, Switzerland, on 24 June 2004 after three rounds of negotiations.
The EFTA-Lebanon Free Trade Agreement (FTA) covers trade in industrial goods, including fish and other marine products, as well as processed agricultural products. The Agreement takes into consideration the different levels of economic development between the EFTA States and Lebanon by providing for an asymmetric tariff dismantling. The EFTA States will eliminate duties and other restrictions for covered products upon entry into force of the Agreement, and Lebanon will gradually abolish its duties during a transition period starting in 2008 and ending in 2015. The Agreement contains rules of origin based on the model of the pan-Euro-Mediterranean cumulation system. Trade in basic agricultural products is covered by agreements concluded bilaterally between each EFTA State and Lebanon and form part of the instruments creating the free trade area.The Agreement also contains substantive provisions on intellectual property, competition and dispute settlement and covers certain aspects of services, investment and government procurement. The Agreement establishes a Joint Committee which supervises the application of the Agreement and provides for binding arbitration.The
EFTA- Lebanon Free Trade Agreement has been notified to the World Trade Organization and the European Commission in 2007 (Notification details)
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