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$1bn sweetener for trade
plan
By Emad Mekay
SHUNEH,
Jordan - The United States will negotiate free trade
agreements separately with Arab countries as a first
step towards setting up a US-Middle East Free Trade
Agreement (MEFTA) by 2013 that will include up to 20 of
the region's nations.
"Our vision is to foster
the revival of a prosperous region once again united by
culture, commerce and goodwill among nations," said US
Trade Representative Robert Zoellick in a speech on the
last day of the high-profile World Economic Forum
meeting in this resort town on the Jordanian side of the
Dead Sea on Monday.
Zoellick and US Secretary of
State Colin Powell met government ministers from Jordan,
Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt, Oman, Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi
Arabia, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)to
discuss steps towards negotiating MEFTA, first announced
by US President George W Bush on May 9. Powell told
reporters that the effort would help create a more
stable Middle East based on the strong links between
trade and peace in the trouble region.
But many
local and international observers view the plans as part
of Washington's economic imperialism in the region,
which they say is being revealed in the US-led
occupation of Iraq, where former president Saddam
Hussein's regime fell in April after a three-week
invasion.
US multinationals, many with links to
the administration of Bush, are making millions of
dollars in contracts to rebuild Iraq under the direction
of a US interim authority and, critics say, at the
expense of the United Nations, whose traditional
post-crisis development role was usurped by Washington.
But Arab businessmen were quick to welcome
details of the proposed free trade deal. "This
initiative offers potentially huge rewards. But our
public and private sectors will need to work together to
secure these benefits," said Shafiq Gabr, an Egyptian
businessman attending the forum.
Many Arabs,
though, do not see the US trade offer as promising, and
view the plan as Washington's attempt to sugar-coat its
invasion of neighboring Iraq, which cost Arab countries
billions of dollars in lost trade and potential tourism
revenues. This [the FTA] is to get Arab countries to
swallow the occupation, the killings and the devastation
in Iraq that the United States caused," wrote Fahed
el-Fanek, a columnist with the Jordanian daily al-Rai.
US Undersecretary of State Alan Larson said
Sunday that Arab countries that want to participate in
the free trade agreement would be expected to consider
business relations with neighboring countries, including
Israel, whose government still occupies Arab land and is
a nation that many people here view with great
suspicion. "If one is aiming to have a region in which
there's a great deal of trade and investment across the
borders, then it is important to have a region that is
not carved into separate little areas. It is important
that there'll be trade not only between the Palestinians
and the Israelis and between the Jordanians and the
Israelis, but with other countries," Larson said.
According to the US plan, Washington will first
negotiate treaties with individual countries, to
"obligate governments to treat foreign investors fairly
and offer legal protection equal to domestic investors".
This, officials say, will demonstrate that these nations
are safe places for multinationals to do business. "If
countries want to attract investors, they have to make
sure those investors are fairly treated," said Zoellick.
The next step would be sub-regional free trade
agreements (FTAs) grouping, for instance, the five Gulf
council countries - Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, UAE and Saudi
Arabia - or the Maghreb countries, which include
Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. The final stage would be a
single deal that would likely also include Israel.
Already Washington allows goods from certain
parts of Jordan to enter the US duty free as long as
they contain Israeli components. Washington already has
FTAs with the Jewish state and with Jordan, and is
negotiating an agreement with Morocco, expected to be
concluded by year's end. Zoellick said the
administration was consulting with Congress to launch
trade talks with the tiny Gulf state of Bahrain.
To lubricate the negotiating process, officials
said Washington will invest US$1 billion in "trade
capacity-building" in Arab countries, a term that refers
to building institutions and training officials to
support the so-called free trade agreements, which have
been widely criticized for benefiting Washington more
than their partner nations. Zoellick also said he is
offering to work with Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Algeria,
Yemen and other Arab countries that want to join the
World Trade Organization to "gain full advantage of open
global markets".
Ibrahim Alloush, a Jordanian
intellectual and activist, said the proposed Middle East
agreement would subordinate Arab economies to major US
companies and Washington's policies. "The agreement uses
conditions like 'fighting terrorism' and 'improving
investment climate'. This means tailoring our local
world to the tastes and whims of American companies and
interests," said Alloush, who also edits the online
publication www.freearabvoice.org.
(Inter Press
Service)
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