By Munir K. Nasser
Chief Correspondent - Washington, DC
Albawaba.com
The US government said on Wednesday that a free trade agreement with Jordan would have no impact on the trade with the United States.
The proposed free trade agreement, which is still under negotiations, would give Jordanian goods duty-free access to the US market and afford similar benefits to US exporters.
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) said in a report released in Washington that a US-Jordan Free Trade Agreement (FTA) would have no measurable impacts on total US exports, imports, production, or employment.
ITC said any increases in US exports to Jordan or US imports from Jordan following the elimination of the tariff would be insignificant relative to the total volume of US exports and US imports.
The ITC, an independent, nonpartisan, fact-finding federal agency, provided an overview of the Jordanian economy, including data on Jordan's trade patterns with the United States, a description of the tariff and investment relationship between the United States and Jordan.
According to ITC, the United States had total merchandise exports of $642 billion in 1999, compared with $270 million merchandise exports to Jordan. Major US exports to Jordan in 1999 were cereals (primarily wheat, rice, and corn) and machinery. The United States had total merchandise imports of $1 trillion in 1999, compared with $31 million merchandise imports from Jordan. Major US imports from Jordan in 1999 were jewelry, carpets, apparel, and antiques.
The ITC said Jordan's two major import sectors in 1999 were machinery and transportation equipment and food and live animals. Iraq and the United States were the top suppliers of Jordan's imports in 1999. Jordan's major export sectors were chemicals (medicaments, fertilizer) and crude materials (phosphates, potash). India, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates were Jordan's top export markets in 1999.
Services were not included in the sector analysis because the volume of US-Jordan trade in services is too small to be reflected in published data.
An FTA with Jordan is not expected to have a measurable impact on US imports from Jordan for 15 of the 16 sectors reviewed by qualitative analysis. For one sector, textiles and apparel, a likely rise in US imports of apparel products from Jordan is expected to have a negligible effect on total US imports. Some of the expected increase in US apparel product imports from Jordan would be apparel products that are currently assembled in Jordan from fabric cut to shape in Israel and exported from Israel to the United States free of duty as a product of Israel under 1996 amendments to the US-Israel FTA.
US trade officials said they expect negotiations between Jordan and the US to complete the free-trade agreement this autumn. They expect a free-trade accord with the United States could give the aid-reliant Jordanian economy a much-needed boost by helping the country attract foreign investment. A wide range of sectors and companies would benefit, from agriculture to high-tech firms. US trade officials said they are working with Jordan on several issues in the negotiations, including access to the services sector and provisions on labor and environmental protection.
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