Jordan Times
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
PM commends Jordan-US trade
relations
By Taylor Luck with Petra dispatches
AMMAN - Prime Minister Nader Dahabi on Monday praised trade relations between
the Kingdom and the US and expressed hope for future cooperation.
He made the comments at the US-Middle East and North Africa Trade and Investment
Conference at the Dead Sea, which gathered senior business executives,
investors, developers and decision-makers to exchange ideas on ways to enhance
bilateral and regional commercial ties.
The premier highlighted the 2001 Jordan-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA), noting
that trade relations between the two countries date back to a cooperation
agreement signed in 1957, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
Dahabi pointed out that in less than seven years, the FTA managed to shift
Jordan’s trade balance with the US from a deficit of $244 million to surplus of
$700 million in 2007, adding that the FTA has been studied to replicate the
Kingdom’s success across the region.
The premier also took the opportunity to call for greater intraregional
investment and trade.
“The region now has a golden opportunity to utilise its educated elite, draw on
its historic traditions of resourcefulness, creativity and innovation and invest
record oil revenues - estimated at $420 billion annually - within the region in
order to reform the current socio-economic and political structures,” Dahabi
told conference attendees, according to Petra.
US Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez also commended the Jordan-US FTA,
pointing out the trade exchange between the two countries reached $2.1 billion
in 2007.
Lauding the ongoing trade liberalisation in the region, the US official
expressed hope for the establishment of a US-Middle East Free Trade Area.
Gutierrez said the conference represents an opportunity to take economic
relationships to another level to build stronger intraregional commercial ties
with US suppliers and investors.
“We could all be doing more business together,” he noted, citing favourable
investment climate, rule of law and human capital as keys to increase trade
relations.
“We believe that with the human talent in the Middle East/North Africa region,
this can be one of the most vibrant economies in the world,” Gutierrez added.
Meanwhile, during a session on capital markets and international partnership,
Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) CEO Robert Mosbacher revealed
that OPIC has granted $150 million in loans to Jordan in various sectors, while
the amount of loans granted to the Middle East and North Africa region exceeded
$25 billion in 2007 alone.
Mosbacher added that OPIC investments in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq
exceeded $250 million in the past two years.
The OPIC CEO said the Kingdom drew the corporation’s interest, particularly due
to the country’s investment-conducive environment, adding that that OPIC plans
to increase its investments in Jordan.