The Council of Professional Associations and opposition parties announced on Saturday the launch of a campaign to boycott American products to protest US policy in the ongoing Middle East crisis. The campaigners were expected to announce the items to be boycotted and their local or European substitutes, along with a mechanism and work strategy accordingly to make the campaign effective.
But campaigners on Saturday said the list “had not been prepared yet” but that it would be ready “soon.” “The idea is that today we are organizing the campaign to tell the world a message that we are against the American policy that is biased against Palestinians,” said Azzam Huneidi, president of the Jordan Engineers Association.
Huneidi said campaign organizers would “take into consideration” Jordanian workers in industries owned in part or whole by American interests. Asked about Jordan's Free Trade Agreement as well as Qualifying Industrial Zones, Huneidi said the effects of these “were not seen” and they “have not [positively] affected the Jordanian market.”
“All the benefits of all the agreements put together will not exceed the benefits Jordan can get if it cooperates with its neighbors,” he said. Huneidi also said that US aid to Jordan “is not really beneficial” because it is “given with conditions, and Jordan cannot fully use it according to its needs.”
“[The US] gives us aid with preconditions. [The US] gives us money either to empower women in rural areas or as wheat that is full of mice,” he said, referring to a 47,500-ton wheat shipment that was purchased from the US through soft loans in October 1999. The shipment was found to be infested with live mice and insects, but was determined, after investigation, to be fit for human consumption.
Total US economic assistance to the Kingdom during the last five decades excluding food aid and military assistance, by now exceeds $2.4 billion. More than 25 percent of this total was provided over the last four years, underscoring the continued importance of our close and productive partnership, a senior economist told the Jordan Times last week. Between 1995-2000, US assistance to Jordan including military assistance and food aid, topped $1.7 billion, the economist said.
Jordan last month initialed a free trade agreement with the US that will allow Jordanian products to enter the US market without customs tariffs. As only the fourth country in the world — after Mexico, Canada and Israel — to enjoy this condition, Jordan is expected to benefit from foreign direct investment attracted by the possibilities of exporting to the vast US market.
The QIZs are areas that have been specified by the US government and designated by local authorities as enclaves where a product manufactured in that zone may enter the US market free of duty or excise taxes and without the requirement of any reciprocal benefits.
Jordan and US also have a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), which protects investors and establishes procedures for resolving investment disputes. — ( Jordan Times )
Oula Al Farawati
© 2000 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
