Turkish Minister Participating In Euromed Meeting In France

MARSEILLES - Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen is representing Turkey in a meeting of European-Mediterranean trade ministers in Marseilles, France.
The Euromed meeting, which gathers European Union member countries and thirteen littoral countries of the Mediterranean Sea, will explore ways to boost trade between EU members and Mediterranean countries and seek to draw a road map to that end.
Tuzmen is also set to meet his French and Israeli counterparts on the sidelines of the meeting.
Launched in 1995 in Barcelona, Spain, the Euromed project aims at setting up a free trade zone by 2010 between the EU and Mediterranean countries.
The European-Mediterranean region is the home for some 700 million people and it constitutes a giant market with a $12 trillion GDP and $2.5 trillion foreign trade.
Turkey`s foreign trade volume with the countries of the region amounts to some $11.5 billion.
(YMB-MS)