To keep in mind

Nadia Markam Ebeid tells Al-Ahram Weekly about the new standards Egyptian exporters need to keep in mind

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photo: Mohamed Wassim

Ten years after it was founded, the Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe (CEDARE) continues to encourage sustainable development initiatives in the Arab world, but increasingly it incorporates an environmental dimension into its agenda. Dr Nadia Makram Ebeid, CEDARE executive manager, describes the environmental today as "more than a moral question" -- rather, a matter of life and death, for "Environment for Development" is the new global buzzword and environmental measures are deemed necessary for development. According to Ebeid, governments have a natural tendency to protect their own markets, something that led, initially, to the development of a quota system, even within the World Trade Organisation (WTO), to obstruct the flow of goods and services into the international market. Discontinued in 2005, the policy was partly replaced by government-specific regulations, many of which are environment-related. Ebeid explained that with non-tariff barriers thus appearing on the international scene -- with major industrial countries introducing measures against flooding, for example, as well as technical constraints, eco-labelling certificates and codes of conduct required of individual importers -- the new system is likely to affect future Egyptian textile and clothes exports. Though theoretically freeing trade, the new system has in effect limited trade opportunities, particularly for Third World countries.

Ebeid notes that environmental requirements are a way of capitalising on a new phenomenon with which many developing countries are as yet unfamiliar. World organisations like UNCTAD have consequently demanded more participation from these countries; and while the entire world is more engaged with the environment along these lines, Europe -- a major trade partner -- is particularly strict on them, with the German market being one of the most tightly regulated. This is something, Ebeid insisted, in no unequivocal terms, that Egypt cannot afford to ignore -- Egyptian producers should spend time examining the requirements of the European markets; the only hope of maintaining and promoting our manufacturing exports, especially as regards textiles and clothes, is to meet environmental requirements.

Interview by Mahmoud Bakr

By Mahmoud Bakr