European Commission Directorate-General for Trade

Syria

The EU is the first trading partner for Syria with total trade amounting to approximately €7.18 billion in 2010.  Although the EU–Syrian bilateral trade volume contracted in 2009 by almost 23% in account of the impact of the global crisis, the 2010 trade volume already surpasses the 2008 one. The EU is Syria's biggest trade partner covering 22.5% of Syrian trade while Syria ranks 50th for the EU.

Most of Syria's export to the EU are energy goods along with some agricultural and textile products..

Bilateral EU-Syria relations are governed by the Cooperation Agreement signed in 1977. On 14 December 2008 Syria and the EU initialled an Association Agreement. The EU decided on 23 May 2011 that it will not take further steps with regard to the Association Agreement with Syria and thus the signature of the Agreement has been put on hold.

Syria is one of the 43 partners of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, known as the Barcelona process, which was relaunched at the Paris Summit in July 2008 as the Union for the Mediterranean. One of the aims of this partnership is to extend the benefits of free trade across the Mediterranean region.

South-South integration

To help bring about change, an essential component of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership is the pursuit of greater economic integration in the Mediterranean region. Several steps aimed at helping Syria drawing benefits from economic integration with other countries in the Mediterranean region have already been taken in the Euromed partnership. One of these is the inclusion of the Mediterranean countries into the pan-European system of cumulation of origin, the so-called pan-euro-med cumulation. The signature of the single regional convention on preferential rules of origin for the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean area will replace the current network of bilateral protocols. It opens the door to a rapid revision of the existing rules of origin, and will thus facilitate regional trade and economic integration.When applied, the system will generate new opportunities for operators in participating countries to re-export goods made from components imported from elsewhere without losing their preferential access to the EU market.

WTO

Syria applied for WTO membership in October 2001. On 4 May 2010 the WTO General Council established a working party to examine the Syrian request for WTO membership.