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CONFIDENTIAL
Association under Article 238 of the Rome Treaty and Trade
Agreements
13. Association under Article 238 has been used in the case
of Greece, Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia.
Algeria, Malta and
Cyprus are considering concluding such association agreements
with the Communities, perhaps as a development from the
initial stage of a preferential trade agreement. In essence
a trading arrangement is negotiated which, while basically a
free trade area or customs union, is tailored to suit the
needs of individual countries. The Community have concluded
trade agreements with Spain and Israel, in which tariff
reductions are on a preferential basis; and non-preferential
trade agreements with Iran and the Lebanon. The latter,
Austria and the U.A.R. have begun discussions for preferential
trade agreements.
Protocols
14. The Rome Treaty included certain protocols applying to
specific countries or commodities. These have, with one
exception, been superseded by later arrangements.
Declaration of Intent
15.
There is one more point to be noted which is relevant
to the conclusion of association agreements for developing Commonwealth countries and dependent. territories. The
Council of Ministers of the Community issued a Declaration
of Intent in July 1963 which confirmed the offer made during
the previous negotiations, that association under what was
later negotiated as the Yaoundé Convention should be open to independent Commonwealth countries in Africa and the
Caribbean. This Declaration (of which the full text is
CONFIDENTIAL
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