The US Senate is expected to ratify the free trade agreement (FTA) with Jordan after it reconvenes on September 4, Jordan’s ambassador to Washington, Marwan Muasher, said on Sunday.
The endorsement might be timed to coincide with a visit by King Abdullah to the United States in September, when he will lead Jordan's delegation to the annual UN General Assembly meeting on September 18 in New York, official sources and US officials told the Jordan Times.
Sources said the king might meet President George W. Bush while in New York.
The endorsement of the FTA is expected to pave the way for the implementation of the deal under which tariffs on two-way trade in goods and services will be eliminated over a 10-year period.
The FTA with Jordan, which was negotiated last year under former president Bill Clinton, will be the first with an Arab country and the fourth after similar deals signed with Canada, Mexico and Israel.
“We are now awaiting the US Senate's ratification of the FTA after their return from their summer recess,” Muasher told the paper.
“But I can say that the final endorsement of the Jordan-US FTA is going to happen very soon,” he added. “It is only a matter of time, nothing else.”
Muasher said his optimism was based on the July 31 approval of the agreement by the US House of Representatives. The endorsement came a week after the adoption of the deal by the Senate finance committee.
The agenda of the Senate's session has not been fixed yet, so no date has been set for a vote on the FTA, said the paper.
However, a US State Department official told the paper that Washington hoped the Senate would approve the agreement this month.
“President George W. Bush and His Majesty King Abdullah are in direct contact on the issue, and we hope to finalise the deal during the monarch's upcoming visit to the US this month,” the official said.
The FTA with Jordan is seen as a model for future US free trade pacts. But some Republican senators are worried as it is the first such deal to carry specific labor and environmental measures long sought by trade unions.
A heated debate sparked by Republican Senator Phil Gramm's objections to the deal had temporarily stalled plans for a vote in the Senate finance committee, which in turn delayed a vote by the full chamber.
Muasher stressed that the criticism of the agreement had not been related to Jordan in any way.
“There is an ideological conflict between the Republicans and Democrats in the US, and the main concern raised by some congressmen was that labor and environmental requirements in the agreement might be used as a precedent or model for future agreements,” he explained.
The State Department official agreed with Muasher, according to the paper.
“Despite the opposition of a few senators, the US-Jordan FTA enjoys a large-scale majority within the Senate,” he said.
He underlined the importance of the FTA in boosting US-Jordan ties.
“The FTA has broader political significance as it is a powerful example to Jordan's neighbors in the Middle East that there are great benefits to peace,” he said. “And it is a vote of confidence in Jordan's economic reform program, which should serve as a source of growth and opportunity for Jordanians in the coming years,” he said.
“We know that the FTA with Jordan is not going to enforce peace in the region, but can reinforce the fact that it is the natural outcome with any moderate regime.”
The ambassador, meanwhile, referred to Jordan's experience at the Qualifying Industrial Zones (QIZs) — areas under joint Jordanian-Israeli customs control whose exports are eligible for duty-free treatment in the US.
He said the QIZs had proved Jordan could “stand the competition.”
“The QIZ is considered one of our success stories for we expect to export to the US markets this year around $150 million worth of goods, compared to $13 million in 1999,” he said.
Official figures show that exports from the QIZs increased 105 percent to $128.1 million in the six months ending June, compared with $62.5 million in the corresponding period, said the paper - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
