Britain's Prime Minister, David Cameron, is urging leaders of the European Union to relax trade rules with Jordan. This is because although the international community has worked hard to provide humanitarian assistance to refugees, he feels that they must offer genuine support for Syria's neighbors who carry the burden of hosting the refugees of the Syrian conflict.
The British Government website Gov.uk reported that the Jordanian government has requested that the EU relax the rules that govern Jordan exports to the EU to make it easier for Jordanian products to qualify for duty free access to European markets. The Prime Minister said that relaxing the EU trade rules with Jordan "as part of a drive to increase support for Syrian refugees and countries hosting them" would provide genuine, long-term support for the refugees of the Syrian conflict and others affected by it.
Britain and Jordan hopes that the relaxation of export rules will spur growth by creating new investments opportunities inside Jordan. This will, in turn, create job opportunities for hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees across the Middle East. Reuters reports that before the World Economic Forum in Davos, Cameron and Jordan's Queen Rania would discuss with business and political leaders what steps can be taken to promote economic opportunities in Jordan. The Prime Minister's meeting with Queen Rania be ahead of the global pledging conference for Syria and the Middle East and will be co-hosted by the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany, Kuwait and the United Nations scheduled to be held in London next month.
Cameron said that export rules relaxation will help not only Syrians and other refugees but Europe as well. He said new economic opportunities would encourage people to stay in the region and ease the refugee crisis in Europe.
Yahoo News said that Cameron will propose the idea of revising trade rules to ease entry of Jordanian products into the EU, establishing zones where investors would be required to employ Syrians. And also allowing Syrians in refugee camps to operate businesses inside the camp and trade with host communities.
Jordan currently hosts more than 600,000 Syrian refugees and is expecting that this number would rise to 1.4 million. Around four million have fled since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
