DOUBT IT----MEFTA-FREE TRADE ----2010
Read up now on MEFTA (Middle East Free Trade Area/Agreement) and see what Israel is being pressured to do in order to conform and get in line with the new Global World and those who are running it.
1) Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA) : Catherine Novelli, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and the Mediterranean explains how countries not in the WTO (World trade Organization) are manipulated and pressured by "intense dialogues " into these trade agreements. You will see how countries around the region (i.e. Israel) are being missionized into this political-financial structure to get in line with the Global World. http://fpc.state.gov/fpc/45701.htm
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Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA) Two Years Later
Catherine Novelli, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and the Mediterranean
Foreign Press Center Briefing
Washington, DC
May 6, 2005
10:00 A.M. EDT
Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center. Very pleased this morning to have with us Catherine Novelli, the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and the Mediterranean. And she'll talk to us this morning about the Middle East Free Trade Area, what has occurred over the last two years and what the future prospects are. She'll have an opening statement to make and after that we'll be very happy to take your questions.
Ms. Novelli.
MS. NOVELLI: Thank you. Well, thank you for being here. We're delighted to take this opportunity to give an update on where we've come in the last two years since President Bush announced the addition of a U.S.-Middle East free trade area by 2013. And it was in May, two years ago, that he made that announcement so -- thought it would be a good time to just update you on all that's been happening -- and quite a bit has been happening.
Just to review the idea and the concepts behind this initiative. In having this goal of uniting the Middle East and the United States in a comprehensive free trade agreement by 2013, we recognize that countries in the region are at very different levels of economic development, of economic decision-making, on openness of their regimes for trade and for investment. And so what we decided to do was to engage countries at their level of where they were at that moment and then help them as they make their own decisions internally to make changes -- help them make the changes that they want to make and to get to higher levels of openness, if that's where they decide that they want to go.
And so that meant that we had a multifaceted approach to our work. And that we work with countries who are not yet in the World Trade Organization, for example, there are a number of those to help them move forward towards that goal. That we engage bilaterally with countries through, what are called, Trade and Investment Framework Agreements or TIFA agreements.
And those agreements allow us to have very intense dialogues about trade and investment policy; about the goals of the -- that the individual government might have for making further progress; how we can help and bring our technical assistance to bear, if that's something that's desired; to help countries get where they want to go; and also to discuss how we can move from bilateral dialogue to a situation where we could have a bilateral free trade agreement between our countries and that's sort of the third stage of what we do.
And we -- so we use these TIFA process as a way to help move reform along and also to help set the stage for negotiations for free trade agreements. And then our idea is that we will engage with countries who are -- made a political commitment and taken steps towards having very open, transparent regimes in these free trade agreements. And then when we have a critical mass of these agreements we can knit them together either sub-regionally or ultimately regionally into one large free trade agreement that works in between the countries in the region as well as vis-à-vis the United States. So that is the process that we're following.
Since the President made this announcement, we have been extremely actively engaged. In terms of our free trade agreements, starting at that end of the spectrum, we already -- before announcing the MEFTA, we had two free trade agreements in the region, one with Israel, one with Jordan. And we have added since that time two more, one with Morocco, that will enter into force on July 1 of this year; one with Bahrain, the negotiations are completed there and it is awaiting approval by our Congress, which we very much hope will occur before the end of this summer.
We have launched negotiations with two other countries, with Oman, where we've just concluded our second round of negotiations two weeks ago and we are substantially completed with those negotiations. We still have a few clean up things that we need to do and we'll be doing that over the next month. And our negotiations with the United Arab Emirates and we will be having our second round of those negotiations starting next week.
So our free trade record, I think, is quite robust, considering it's only been two years that we've accomplished all of this in such a short amount of time. With respect to the Trade and Investment Framework Agreements, we have a total of nine of those now. We have agreements with almost all the countries in the region and we have had very robust discussions with those countries and really have helped move the process forward.
We started with TIFA agreements with Bahrain, with the Emirates, with Oman and then used that process to help move us into the free trade negotiating context. And I think one of the reasons why the negotiations have gone quickly on these free trade agreements has been because we have had such thorough discussions before we actually sat at the negotiating table and we were in a position where the policies that we were jointly pursuing truly were joint policies. They were based on decisions that the United States has made about having open markets, but also -- and equally based on decisions that were made by the leadership of the countries involved about wanting to also have open and transparent markets.
So the instrument of the free trade agreement is really a building block that both countries regard as in their interest. I think the statistics are quite dramatic in terms of the results of these free trade agreements. As I said, the new ones are just entering into force, so I can't give you, you know, direct statistics yet on that since they aren't in force, but the one in the Arab world that's been in force since 2001 is the Jordan agreement.
And when we began our negotiations with Jordan, Jordan exported to us $11 million worth of goods, which is very, very small. Last year, they exported $1.2 billion so that's quite a dramatic, you know, rise in exports in such a very short amount of time. Our exports also doubled in that time to Jordan, so we were also getting a benefit. And I think that the other very interesting statistic there is on foreign direct investment, where the foreign direct investment in Jordan was about $680 million when we began the negotiation. In 2002, which are my latest statistics, it was $2.4 billion.
So there's been a dramatic increase there as well and I think that -- I can't speak for these countries, obviously, they need to speak for themselves and their leaders do, but what we've encountered in the negotiations is that when leaderships make the decisions that they want to have reform and openness, they're also looking at some of the challenges that they're facing, the major one of which is employing their people. And with respect to Jordan, the Government of Jordan has estimated that over 40,000 jobs have been created also in this timeframe, solely due to the free trade with the United States.
So, I think when they look at those things, they -- that is a very big encouragement to them to make their own decisions about reform and to press ahead. And the free trade agreement and the obligations that are in it are very, very comprehensive. They cover all products. Everything goes to zero. We get rid of all non-tariff barriers.
So we basically put the U.S. market, which is the largest market of the world, at the disposal of, or open it for the exporters from these countries and it's a reciprocal agreement, so that's what happens on the other side. That's not just for goods. It's also for services, where we make market opening commitments there, particularly in crucial areas like telecommunications and financial services, which are very important to attracting foreign investment, having that kind of infrastructure; as well, things in government procurement so that there are opportunities on both sides for that; and provisions where we will each enforce our own laws on labor and environment. So it's a very comprehensive kind of agreement and we look at it as an agreement that will remain in place, you know, for a very long time and will help facilitate this kind of growth.
One of our other goals has been to help facilitate intra-regional trade and to that end we have left provisions, which we're going to be working out the details of, to allow what we will call "cumulation". In order to send products in, you want to make sure that they're really products of the United States that are going into Jordan, or Jordan going into the United States, and not, you know, coming from some third country. And so what we are looking at is how we can allow the content of some of these products to be comprised of content from the free trade partners in the region so that we can encourage sort of uses of comparative advantage and things like that in putting together a product that could then come into the United States. So we are working on that, the details of that out, as a way to help further more regional integration.
I think I will stop here and just ask if you have questions.
MR. DENIG: Okay. Could I just ask to please use the microphone and also introduce yourself and your news organization when you do.
QUESTION: Good morning. I'm Tareq Rashed from Middle East News Agency.
I just want to ask, do you have any -- do you face any difficulties concerning the political impact on the facilitation of such trade agreements in the Middle East in particular?
MS. NOVELLI: The political impact?
QUESTION: On the free trade agreements. Do you have some criteria concerning the political situation in these countries?
MS. NOVELLI: Oh, I see. Well, what we have done is we have looked at countries who -- as I said, we try to reach countries where they are in terms of their own economic development and so we've looked at that. So, for example, if a country isn't yet in the World Trade Organization, our free trade agreements use the WTO obligations as a basis and then they go beyond the WTO. So we look at -- you have to sort of be at step one before you can be at step ten and so we look at those kind of issues and we really try to keep this based on those kind of economic issues.
QUESTION: I mean, you said openness is one of the criteria to start these such agreements.
MS. NOVELLI: Economic openness. Right.
QUESTION: Economic openness.
MS. NOVELLI: Right.
QUESTION: What about the political sides? I mean, if there were some political reforms in the country or they have authoritarian regimes, do you start also negotiations for trade agreements with them?
MS. NOVELLI: Well, obviously, we look at the whole situation of a country because we are, you know, engaging, you know, economically. We haven't put any a priori exclusions on countries in terms of where we want to be by 2013. In terms of decision making on having an open trade -- having an open economy, having a market-based economic, having, you know, transparency in your economic decision making, you know, publishing laws and those kind of things, those are sort of the main things that we look at but we certainly do look at the whole picture.
QUESTION: So it has nothing to do with politics?
MS. NOVELLI: I wouldn't say it has nothing to do with politics. I would say the primary emphasis of what we look at is on the economic side but we do -- all of the -- of the factors certainly factor into any decision we make to enter into such a serious agreement as a free trade agreement.
MR. DENIG: Let me maybe just follow up on that. Would rule of law and observance of honoring contracts, would that be an important consideration?
MS. NOVELLI: Well, yes. I mean, that -- but we spend -- I guess what I would say is we, you know, because we have this sort of graduated approach, we spend a great deal of time in this bilateral dialogue under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement talking about how to establish commercial laws that make sense, trade policy laws that fit in with, you know, international rules, and et cetera. And, obviously, you know, it's up to the governments to decide whether they want to do that.
The free trade agreements that we enter into, though, are very, very high-quality, very comprehensive agreements. So if a government isn't interested in having, you know, commitments that are, you know, two things like, you know, having rules about how you govern trade and govern investment, then they're not going to enter into a free trade agreement with us because, you know, there's no meeting of the minds, I guess I would say, on that.
So, yeah, those things enter into it but, I mean, it's a mutual decision to enter into a free trade agreement and we both know what we want to get out of it and we don't sort of go that step unless we both want to be there. So it's not that we're sitting here with some list of criteria. It's that we both mutually agree that this step makes sense for us and we're both on the same page, which is why we can conclude an agreement, because if we were here and here, there would be no way to get to the middle.
QUESTION: Thank you. Samir Nader with Radio Sawa.
Can you name for us the nine countries that you have the TIFA with? And one more question I have. The negotiations with the UAE, you said next week. Will these be held in Washington or in the region?
MS. NOVELLI: Yes, in Washington. We had our first round in Abu Dhabi in March so, you know, we kind of alternate where we go and so it's their turn to be here.
Who we have TIFAs with? We have TIFAs with Qatar, Yemen, Emirates -- but that's morphing into a free trade agreement, Kuwait, Oman -- also morphing into a free trade agreement, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Bahrain -- which has morphed also, Morocco -- which has now turned in, Jordan -- which has also turned into a free trade agreement. So those are the countries that we have TIFAs with right now.
QUESTION: What are -- is there -- oh, sorry. Like what are the other countries that are not included in this, are you working on having a TIFA with them? Or like, for example, like a country like Lebanon, why you don't have a TIFA with them?
MS. NOVELLI: Well, Lebanon has been -- you know, as you know, there's been a lot of things going on in Lebanon so we sort of need to let -- often we need to let those kind of things settle down before one goes on into the economic track. There's not a -- you know, so we're waiting until an opportune time to move ahead with Lebanon on a TIFA.
We don't have TIFAs either with Iran or Libya yet and that's because of, you know, there are -- as I said, we do look at the whole situation and there are other issues outstanding there that haven't allowed us to move ahead on the economic side yet.
QUESTION: I'm Zaher Imadi from the Syrian News Agency.
I know it is probably a little early, too early to talk about enhanced relations, economic relations, but there is a new trend now in Syria. There is -- Syria is banking on new route where it is going to be pursuing and it has started pursuing economic openness and it will be followed by political openness. In the short word, it is going to be a new beginning in Syria soon and we're going to see that.
But Syria needs to have the infrastructure. Now, someone -- you know, it needs help. The Europeans are trying to help in their partnership with Syria economically and Syria would need also a help that would get her to build that infrastructure in order to succeed in its openness, the economic openness, like in the banking industry and other forums.
Now, is there any scenario in the United States Government where they are trying to think of preparing the ground where they can be also partners, like other Europeans already now just dove into the market? Syria has lots of potential, especially when it comes to Syrian expatriates who have billions of dollars waiting outside the country to partner with either European companies or American companies. Is there any scenarios that have been prepared now to help Syria to kind of walk her through this openness, economic openness?
MS. NOVELLI: Well, I really -- I don't really want to comment on, you know, internal discussions. Obviously, as with a few of the other countries I mentioned, you know, we do look at the whole situation before we kind of go in and talk about the details on economics. So that's sort of tied up in the larger issues.
QUESTION: David Shelby with the Washington File. As you, I’m sure, know, free trade agreements can often pose a threat to weak or relatively uncompetitive domestic industries, so when you're going in and negotiating these jobs and working against the interests of some wealthy business owners or perhaps, even workers who work in these industries, do you find that this has been a problem in the negotiations that you've had with Middle East countries? And if so, how do you address this or, perhaps maybe more appropriately, how do you help the governments in those countries address these problems?
MS. NOVELLI: Well, I think there's two points that you made. You talked about wealthy, you know, kind of, obviously robust kind of industries and weak/poor, you know, workers which are kind of two separate things. I think clearly, there are vested interests in every country, and particularly, ones who have not had a history of having economic openness who like the status quo to continue. And that's something that really -- the leadership of that individual country needs to confront and those are decisions that they need to make about what direction they want to take their country in and how they're going to deal with that.
In terms of workers and being threatened and, you know, losing their jobs and things, all I can tell you is that the net result in the Middle East of our free trade policies is -- has not been that jobs have been lost. If you look at Jordan, they've gained jobs. We have heard no -- not one job being lost because of the free trade agreement or because of free trade policies. In fact, what we've found is that the increase in economic activity has created whole new kinds of industries that nobody ever even thought of at the time we were doing this.
For example, there are now -- there is now a whole industry that facilitates all these exports that never existed before. There is a -- because Jordan made very good commitments on intellectual property rights, their pharmaceutical industry has boomed and their exports of pharmaceuticals have risen over 30 percent to the world at large. So you know, this whole -- the idea of "A rising tide floats all boats," what we have found is that that has actually really worked in that region.
I will say that there has been -- at the time when we negotiated the agreement with Jordan, Jordanians were very worried because they had a lot of small, sort of, shops and things and they were worried, what happens if a big U.S. company comes in, you know, is this going to put people out of business, but it just has not turned out to be the case.
QUESTION: If I could just follow on that, you mentioned Jordan pharmaceutical and it's an interesting case. I'm wondering if, when you're negotiating these agreements, do you make any effort to maybe identify industries that could benefit from this or is this just some sort of serendipitous accident that Jordanian pharmaceuticals took off?
MS. NOVELLI: Well, I think the whole idea behind these agreements is that we lay the groundwork or we put out the framework, you know, by sort of setting up the rules and setting up a system. But then, who has to take advantage of that system is the private sector, so, you know, we are not managing trade or managing the economies, you know, in a way to say, "Okay, well, now we're going to do this" or "We're going to do that," but the idea is that, you know, different countries have different comparative advantages, they have different bases that they start from, and if you put a very transparent, open regime in place, that allows the entrepreneurs of that country to sort of go where their advantages are and do something with it and partner with the U.S. companies who may not know -- have known before about what kind of opportunities were there or may have been a little hesitant, but now that there is sort of an iron-clad kind of legal regime in place, to feel more comfortable, you know, doing business.
So, I think it's -- I think countries certainly have in mind, where are their comparative advantages, but I think in the market economy, you can never predict exactly what's going to happen and that's why it works because somebody isn't there trying to pull all the strings.
QUESTION: Hi.
MR. DENIG: Use this microphone and introduce yourself and your news organization.
QUESTION: Yeah, my name is Aya Batrawy and I'm with the Kuwait News Agency.
MS. NOVELLI: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: On Jordan, my question to you is, the issue in Jordan is -- right now, you guys do have a free trade agreement and it was the first Middle Eastern country to get one.
MS. NOVELLI: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: But I'm wondering is -- because Jordan was given this and it does have, you know, issues dealing with policy and refugees -- I mean, it's not exactly -- and my question to you is, you know, recently, at the Arab League meeting, there was discussion from Jordan suggesting that maybe, you know, Israel should change or the Arab League should change its recommendations to Israel and the Arab League rejected it and said, "Absolutely not."
And then, as you know, the King of Jordan ended up not going due to scheduling conflicts, but I'm wondering, if its negotiations through the FTA -- have somehow influenced these policies domestically and internationally?
MS. NOVELLI: Well, you know, in the free trade agreement negotiations, we're talking about economics. And the King of Jordan made a lot of decisions about -- and he was an early leader in the region, making decisions to open up the country economically. We have not discussed policies towards other countries, et cetera, as part of our free trade agreement negotiations.
We are looking at the economic peace in the negotiations and the agreement is about commitments that we make between ourselves and doesn't involve third parties. So you know, I don’t -- you know, I can't speak for the King of Jordan about why he makes , you know, decisions about various things, but the free trade agreement is about trade and economics and engaging the U.S. and whatever country we're doing an agreement with.
And I guess I wouldn't agree with the way that you put this, which was, Jordan was given this. This wasn't a gift. This was a negotiation. It was a partnership that was created based on a shared vision of having open markets and that having market economy and open markets are a way to help the prosperity of the people in the U.S. and in Jordan and that was really what this agreement was about. And the Jordanians' private sector has taken a great deal of advantage of that and that kind of thing is what we're hoping we can spread, you know, and sort of do our part on the economic side, you know, with other countries who want to make those same kind of decisions.
QUESTION: And I know that there's been some stalling with Egypt and they've come to the U.S. and said that they're willing to be more open and they're going to, you know, privatize banks in Egypt, et cetera.
MS. NOVELLI: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: But I was wondering how far are you with that and if you could explain more what's needed in order to get there within this year?
MS. NOVELLI: Well, I think the most important thing -- and I would say, again, I wouldn't agree with your characterization of stalling. I think it's a -- you need to have a meeting of the minds, politically, about where you want to be and what you're about in terms of your economy. And if you don’t have that -- and you came in a little late -- if you don't have that -- no, no, it's okay, but I kind of talked about this, but I'll just repeat for your benefit -- I think if you don't have that, then you won't have a good agreement, because the point is that this agreement -- it's a very rigorous agreement.
It's 400 pages long. It goes into every area of the economy. It makes commitments that you're going to have, you know, that you're going to have free -- truly free trade and that you're going to be transparent in what you do, that you're going to have public participation in your economic decision-making.
In other words, if you're going to make regulations about insurance, that you would say, "Okay, we're thinking about -- you know, regulating insurance in this way," that you would allow the public to comment on that and then the government makes the final decision about how they're going to do that regulation, but at least they have the benefit of input and people know that this is going on. And then once they make their final decision, they put that out so everybody knows, "Here's what the rules are."
And so, you know, those are things that are kind of the standard things that are in our free trade agreements and so, what we do is we engage through these bilateral discussions to make sure that we're both on the same page. That's where we both want to be at the end of the day.
And Egypt certainly has, now, a new economic team in place. They have made a lot of changes economically. Until recently, though, I don't -- I think it was pretty safe to say that we weren't necessarily on the same page. And so starting a negotiation that, you know, where you have very different views about, sort of, what you want to do is not -- you're not likely to finish it.
And so, you know, we want to negotiate with folks that -- where the FTA is seen as a positive thing and as something that's reinforcing their own decisions. And so that's why I think now we're in a different situation with Egypt, where we -- I was in Cairo in February to have one of these TIFA discussions and we had very in-depth discussions about, you know, what are in our free trade agreements, what , you know, what they've been, what's happening in the Egyptian economy, what their plans are for the future, you know, how -- do these things fit together? And I think both sides are thinking about, you know, what's appropriate in terms of taking our relationship forward.
QUESTION: Would you call this next meeting, then, bringing those things forward and seeing if they match? Or is the next meeting -- because I understand the Prime Minister is coming in two weeks?
MS. NOVELLI: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: So is that meeting going to be -- what step, I guess? Would it be the one where they just submit and then you guys agree? Or have you agreed on it?
MS. NOVELLI: I think -- well, the Prime Minister's not just coming to talk about this one issue. Obviously, he's coming to talk about the larger relationship and so, clearly, you know, the question of our trade relationship will be something that'll be discussed.
The kind of meetings that we had in Cairo were very intense. I mean, they had expert -- we had, you know, experts and all these things. They had experts on these things. So it was sort of a slightly different thing than, you know, when a prime minister comes and talks in the -- sort of, a larger context about things.
But I’m sure that their plans for economic reform and how we can work together and how we can be a positive force in that will be something that'll be discussed.
QUESTION: Thank you very much.
MS. NOVELLI: Mm-hmm.
MR. DENIG: Let's go to the -- Japan.
QUESTION: Ken Karube from Jiji Press, Japan. My question is regarding Saudi Arabia. Can you give us some current status of the negotiation work on consultation with Saudi Arabia? I understand that Saudi Arabia should have negotiation for accession to WTO.
MS. NOVELLI: Right.
QUESTION: So what is your timetable or timeline to the -- by the 2013 on Saudi Arabia?
MS. NOVELLI: Well, as I said, I mean, we are working with countries where they are, so the idea is that we -- Saudi Arabia wasn't in the WTO when we started and their WTO accession had been kind of limping along, you know, without a whole lot of momentum behind it. I think that has changed in the last year and we've made a great deal of progress with them.
We are still negotiating with them, but we are hoping to conclude the, you know, our aim is to conclude the negotiations by the end of this year and, you know, that doesn't preclude us from engaging and talking to them bilaterally, but, you know, once the WTO -- once they're in the WTO, that at least gives us a platform, then, for talking about, "Well, what do you do beyond that?" But we kind of want to get that one settled before we start worrying about, you know, the next step.
MR. DENIG: I just want to use the microphone here, please.
QUESTION: Just to follow up on Saudi Arabia, my name is Tamman Al-Barazi from Alwatan Alarabi Magazine. Just to follow up on Saudi Arabia. I mean, Saudi Arabia, I think, is the -- your biggest partner in trade --
MS. NOVELLI: Yes.
QUESTION: -- intimately?
MS. NOVELLI: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: And it's really almost having a war of words with Bahrain, because they think that the trade agreement you achieved was that -- the flooding the Saudi market or some of the -- I mean, even from people going to conspiracy theory and all these things, what's the -- why this is happening, why you are not moving on the Saudi track while, you know, you've done it with the Bahraini. Can you explain more on this issue?
MS. NOVELLI: Sure. I’m glad you asked, actually, that question. First, what I would say is we strongly support the GCC as an economic entity. We think it's a good thing, we want it to be strong and we believe that what we are doing and the way that we are engaging economically with countries in the GCC will help promote a strong GCC.
The Bahrain, as I explained in the beginning about, sort of, our theory of working with countries where, you know, kind of where they were and as the FTA kind of fits into their own thinking, Bahrain has always been a very open market. They have been a leader in opening up their economy for a long time, you know, they have a completely open banking system and have for a number of years. That's really redounded to their benefit. They came to us and said they were interested in doing a free trade agreement and we actually asked to make sure that this was something that was consonant with the rules of the GCC. They confirmed that and we've moved ahead with them.
Since that time, a number of other -- we have these TIFA agreements with, now, all the GCC members, including Saudi Arabia. And all the other GCC countries, including Saudi Arabia, have expressed interest in having bilateral free trade agreements with us. So we are negotiating now with Oman and the Emirates and we are having talks with Kuwait, with Qatar, and we will, sort of, have focused our efforts with the Saudis on getting them into the WTO and we're working with them to do that, because that is, sort of, the first step and everything you do, in a free trade agreement, starts from the WTO and then goes to a higher level.
So you've got to get that first step in place. You can't really talk about the higher level until you get that, but, you know, we are interested in moving ahead on a free trade agreement with Saudi Arabia when the time's appropriate, but we're concentrating our efforts right now on their WTO accession.
And so we really haven’t, sort of, looked at, "Well, who's our largest trading partner," and tried to do it in that way. What we've tried to say is, "Where does an FTA fit in best with the economic decision-making and the political decision-making on economics" that is being made by leadership in any particular country, so that we can be successful and have high-quality FTAs and build up a set of those that can be then knit together.
And so that's how we've made our decisions about how to go forward and build out the MEFTA.
QUESTION: But does -- I mean, the Saudis complaining about Bahrain doesn't have any basis that flooding the market and so --
MS. NOVELLI: You know, no, there are things that can easily be done to make sure that that doesn't happen and we have no interest in, sort of, using the Bahrain or the Oman or the Emirati FTA to try to flood the Saudi market, you know, in a way, you know, to go around the GCC. So I think that those are things that can be dealt with on a technical level and there's really no basis to say that that's what we were trying to do at all.
MR. DENIG: Samir can have --
QUESTION: I have to repeat my name or not -- okay, I would like to ask you about Morocco. You said Jordan gained 40,000 jobs?
MS. NOVELLI: Mm-hmm.
QUESTION: In how long?
MS. NOVELLI: In about three -- what, four years, three years.
QUESTION: What's your expectations for Morocco and the agreement with Morocco to get an effect like -- since Morocco is a bigger market than Jordan like, on jobs and on the economy. How would they benefit? Can you give us an expectation?
MS. NOVELLI: You know, I can't, because it will be up to what the private sector does, so I can't really say it's going to be this many jobs and it's going to be of this sector or that sector. It really will depend on what happens with the private sector. I can say that we're optimistic that there will be positive results.
I don't have the statistics at my hands, but even since we announced that we were doing the free trade agreement with Morocco, their export -- our bilateral trade has actually grown quite a bit, so -- and there have been a number of U.S. companies that have gone and opened up offices, made investments in Morocco and they've told us that the fact that, you know, we were moving ahead and that Morocco had made the commitment to move ahead with the free trade agreement was a factor in, you know, their making that decision.
So -- but I think, you know, the free trade agreement is really the -- almost the effect of the decision-making that the leadership has had, because the, you know, the King in Morocco said he wanted to have an open economy, he wanted to have economic reform, he wanted to do agricultural reform and so the obligations in the free trade agreement fit in with the King's own reform agenda so that there's, sort of, a mutually reinforcing kind of relationship there.
QUESTION: Thank you.
QUESTION: Well, when you start negotiating with certain countries, you place a number of -- you said a list of a number of requirements that should be met by this country so that it can qualify for a free trade agreement. So concerning Egypt, specifically, what are the obstacles that are on the road now?
MS. NOVELLI: Well, we don't have a laundry list of requirements. I think, as I said, I mean we -- what we do is we go through what kind of things are in our free trade agreements and what we know, from our stand point, we will have to have in our free trade agreements in order for our Congress to agree to pass them because Congress has giving us legislative authority to, you know, send these agreements to the Congress for a "yes" or "no" vote. But they've also listed a long list of criteria that they want to see in an agreement, you know, in order for them to say, "Okay, yes, we'll say 'yes' to this."
So we have sort of almost a mandate of what kinds of things we need to achieve in an agreement.
And so when we talk to countries about that, we try to and as I said -- it's very detailed, we talk to them about, well, here's all these things, you know, where are you, what kind of decisions do you want to make for your own country about, you know, having free trade with the U.S., having open services regimes, having -- allowing, you know, U.S. companies to bid on your government procurement and you having that opportunity, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
And part of the decision making is, you know, (a) you know, kind of, are there big gaps between where countries are now and what we will need to have; and (b) you know, are there -- is what we're outlining is the kind of things we need to have to pass this agreement, is that in line with our own thinking about where they want to end up at the end of the day in their own decision making.
And so that's why it's really a mutual decision. It's not us saying, "Okay, here are -- here's a gift, have a free trade agreement." That's not it. It's sitting down together and saying, does this make sense for us at this point in time. And that's the kind of conversation that we're having with Egypt that we're having with a lot of other countries.
QUESTION: Then do you find the current reform encouraging and --
MS. NOVELLI: Very encouraging.
QUESTION: And where are their place now concerning the corporate laws and these things, which are very essential to such agreements.
MS. NOVELLI: No, they are and I think that changes that have been made recently in Egypt are extremely encouraging for Egypt, in for allowing the private sector there to really, you know, sort of take off. I mean, there's a very sophisticated private sector there anyway, but to allow for much more growth and job creation and so we're very, very encouraged by that for Egyptians.
And in terms of intellectual property, there's been a lot done on intellectual property, though there are some serious questions, one of which is that the Ministry of Health in Egypt has recently authorized the production of a number of drugs that are still under patent. And that is, you know, that's a serious question because one of the things that are in the free trade agreements is that you'll respect patents. And that's why -- actually, Jordan's pharmaceutical industry has done so well because they made these commitments to respect patents and companies invested there -- and their own companies were able to then prosper because, you know, their intellectual property can be protected.
So I mean, it's not -- there are gaps between with the current state of things in Egypt and the kind of things our Congress would expect from us. But that doesn't mean they're not bridgeable, but they are food for discussion.
QUESTION: If I could just very quickly clarify that -- list of things that Congress looks for -- I assume those are economic things versus political things?
MS. NOVELLI: Oh yeah, there's that. It's called Trade Promotional Authority and there's a list of things in the law and all the areas that I've talked about, you know, investment, government procurement, intellectual property, you know, all the things that are in our free trade agreements, it just pertains to that.
QUESTION: Thank you.
MR. DENIG: Okay. Let's go back to Japan.
QUESTION: Can I follow-up a few questions? I believe that these FTAs are consistent with WTO rules and according to WTO agreement, FTA should have so-called "substantially all" to open the market, can you give me a specific number -- what is number of the specific "all" in each agreement?
MS. NOVELLI: Our agreements cover all trade and goods and agriculture, not substantially -- "all".
QUESTION: So you mean a hundred percent?
MS. NOVELLI: A hundred percent.
QUESTION: Really?
(Laughter.)
MS. NOVELLI: So we're not worried about whether they comply. On the services side, there's also a substantially all commitment there, there were some exceptions that countries do take, but we are not at all concerned that we don't meet those requirements. Those are, you know, exceptions that countries all around the world have taken on various things and services. But on the good side, a hundred percent is covered. And that's why you need to have conversations about whether that's where countries want to be in their own decision making to make sure that that's the wavelength they're on as well.
MR. DENIG: Let's go back to --
QUESTION: Yeah, you mentioned the need to meet certain criteria or expectations of Congress. And I know that in some FTAs in the past, there have been Congressmen who've had problems with the FTAs. How do you feel that Congress -- how receptive is Congress then to the FTAs that you've negotiated with Middle East countries?
MS. NOVELLI: Well, I think the best answer to that question is the FTA with Morocco, that the Congress passed was passed by the largest vote -- affirmative vote of any FTA under TPA, under Trade Promotional Authority, so I think that's a pretty resounding answer to how they feel about this whole project.
MR. DENIG: Samir?
QUESTION: Yes. So are you encouraged that President Bush's initiative to have the free trade area with the Middle East by 2013 is achievable? Is doable? I mean, you have two years so far since he announced the initiative and you have these results. I mean, how do you feel about this goal?
MS. NOVELLI: Well, it's an ambitious goal, but I think we're on a very ambitious track. And I think that the ambition shown by the leaders in the Middle East is also, you know, gaining momentum and we see that everywhere on the economic side. There are, you know, leaders have to provide good jobs for their people and there is a -- as all of you know, better than I do -- there are a lot of young people who are going to be coming into the work force across the board in the Middle East who are going to need good jobs.
And I think that is fueling the decision-making that one needs to have an economic system that's going to provide those kind of jobs. So I think it's an achievable goal and certainly one we're going to work very hard to put into place.
QUESTION: And what is Mr. Zoellick's function? Since Mr. Zoellick was the Trade Representative and now he is number two at State Department, will this, in his new position give more momentum to such a goal? Will he have an impact on this or it doesn't matter?
MS. NOVELLI: Well, I think Ambassador Zoellick is very supportive of this, as is Ambassador Portman, the New U.S. Trade Representative, who's singled out this initiative in his testimony as one of the things that he wanted to make sure, you know, move forward. So I think we have lots of support and we've always had a great deal of support from the State Department, from AID, from you know, all the agencies in the U.S. Government for this because the President stated the initiative and because it's the right thing to do.
QUESTION: Can you just comment on Kuwait and the copyright and, like, where they are on that because recently the report came out and they weren't doing good, so --
MS. NOVELLI: Yeah. Enforcement in Kuwait has been a problem. And what we hope is that we can work with, you know, the Kuwait Government to really -- to sort of get that under control because I think it's important for Kuwait and for creative artists in Kuwait and those who want to do -- make computer software and diversifying the economy there, which is something that the leadership wants to do that the folks feel that when they create something, it isn't going to be illegitimately reproduced. So we are trying to actively work with the Kuwaiti Government to make sure that that problem does, you know, that a grip is gotten on that problem.
QUESTION: Can you give us just a brief about the stages for which the talks go through until you reach an agreement to sign?
MS. NOVELLI: Well, once we start negotiating the free trade agreement itself, is that what you mean?
QUESTION: Yes.
MS. NOVELLI: Well, what we do is we have rounds of negotiations where we have, like, typically, you'd have 13 different groups working at once. It's sort of in parallel with each other on different subject matters. And they, you know, they try to make progress off of substance and start producing a written text, you know, that the people can agree to. And then you have these rounds where everybody's together kind of doing this.
And then in between the rounds, there's a lot of contact that goes on through videoconference, through e-mail, through telephone, where people are exchanging information that they may need to, you know, exchange or if questions are raised, getting answers to those and through trying to move the process forward. So it's sort of a continuous kind of process that goes on.
And it can take -- with Morocco, it took us a little over a year to finish the negotiations from when we started; with Bahrain, it took three and half months. So you know, there's a range of how slow or how fast one can go and it partly depends on, you know, the complexity of the issues and --
QUESTION: So what stage the negotiations with Egypt are now?
MS. NOVELLI: We have not begun negotiations with Egypt. We -- no.
QUESTION: You haven't -- you haven't started at all.
MS. NOVELLI: No, no.
QUESTION: Okay. That's very important. (Laughter.)
MR. DENIG: Any final questions?
QUESTION: How do you see the impact of the new free trade agreements that are taking place in the Middle East between Middle Eastern countries and other countries, foreign countries or between the Middle Eastern countries themselves now that they have the agenda of trying to accomplish a free trade agreement?
MS. NOVELLI: Well, you know, I think one of the things that's been really interesting is that the, you know, the free trade agreements because they are very, you know, high standard, a lot of the things that countries commit to doing, particularly on the side of investment and telecommunications and a lot of the services areas, are things that they're going to do for their whole economy and not just, you know, for the U.S. and that makes them very attractive to foreign investment from lots of different places. So when I gave the FDI figures for Jordan, that wasn't all U.S. investment. That was investment from around the world.
And I think that one of the things that -- and that leaders have told us is why they're interested in this is because it is such a high-quality thing and they're making a statement by agreeing to that, that this is what we stand for in our country, in terms of our economy and that they hope that that's going to attract the notice of investors more globally. So I think that that's, you know, it has had a very productive impact in that way.
I can also say I think that watching results and positive results has helped catalyze, you know, other countries to say, wow, you know, this can be a positive thing and we're interested. And certainly, when we moved to Hormuz, Bahrain, that did generate a lot of interest in other GCC members who he really hadn't had a lot of economic discussion with before. So it's really been a nice catalyst for that. I think it helped catalyze moving the Saudi WTO session forward. So I think it's a good -- it's been a very positive thing.
MR. DENIG: I want to thank Ms. Novelli for being with us today for this interesting briefing and I thank you for being here, ladies and gentlemen, for participating.
QUESTION: Thank you.
MS. NOVELLI: Thank you.
2) Casinos, and loss of sovereignty for Israel... Establishment (of) Middle East Free Trade Area would provide hope for Palestinians - not Jews (my insert) The plan was all set in place for Gush Katif. Dirty deals of throwing people out of their homes, to enable a free trade area with casinos were planned, but the surprise election of the Hamas is slowing down the process. That's why America doesn't want to deal with the Hamas, not because they are terrorists, becasue Arafat and Mazen and the whole FATAH are also terrorists (but they were nicer suits), but the problem is, that the HAMAS terrorists are more religious, and they are not interested in the 'Material' world, prosperity, comfort, etc. They hate the West and are not playing ball with the West. http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3118212,00.html== SEE BELOW HERE
Jobs for peace in Gaza
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3118212,00.html
Establishment Middle East Free Trade Area would provide hope for Palestinians
By S. C. Yuter
The following is a strategy of jobs for peace beginning in Gaza, which allows the Gaza settlers to stay there.
Port Mefta (Middle East Free Trade Area) is a free trade, tourist and gambling area established this year between Deir El Balah and Gush Katif, including Kfar Darom (7 sq. kilometers, or 2.5 sq. miles), under the administration and policing of the U.S.-led Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) that monitors the peace in the Sinai.
Cutting a Deal
Will Dutch buy settler greenhouses? / By Diana Bahur-Nir
According to deal Holland would purchase settler businesses and later grant them to Palestinians; Dutch fear Palestinians would refuse deal if it includes offering money to settlers for businesses established on conquered land
Full Story
Port Mefta, deemed of “great interest” by Israel’s government, is followed by an MFO-administered Gaza Mefta in 2007, comprising Port Mefta, Gush Katif, the Philadelphi Route and Dahaniya airport, with the end of Israel’s occupation and control of the entire Gaza Strip and full employment for Gazans.
Wolfensohn approves
Gaza Mefta is a combined duty- and tax-free Singapore, Las Vegas and Riviera with ample affordable desalinated water. There is no withdrawal of Gaza settlers because all those who want to remain in the Gaza Strip reside in Mefta as international free traders, though under the MFO’s jurisdiction, not Israel’s.
Port Mefta provides unlimited access by the Palestinians to its new seaport and to an MFO-administered Dahaniya airport, which, along with the Philadelphi Route, are secured by MFO international police to block smuggling.
With economic viability and the promise of full employment for Gazans, Mefta creates hope for the Palestinian people.
James Wolfensohn, Special Envoy for Gaza Disengagement, has stated that the Port Mefta proposal is interesting and would help jumpstart the Gaza economy and boost Gaza employment.
Non-executive labor must be Palestinian
He proposes to connect Gaza with the West Bank by a sunken four-lane highway. Under the Mefta plan, the Gaza terminal of the highway is Port Mefta, and the surface of the highway is patrolled solely by MFO police – comprised of the Sinai MFO Fiji battalion and includes former Israeli and Palestinian police; an Israeli-designed anti-smuggling barrier surrounds Port Mefta.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon withdraws the Gaza defense forces in mid-August (except for a small contingent to protect Gush Katif until it becomes part of Gaza Mefta) and transfers northern Gaza settlers to Kfar Darom (part of Port Mefta) or Gush Katif.
The MFO begins construction of Port Mefta and the sunken highway before the end of 2005. The construction of the Port Mefta infrastructure and the sunken highway will require every construction worker Palestinians can muster, including those in the West Bank when it is quiet, since non-executive labor must be Palestinian. Then there is the construction of the far larger Gaza Mefta starting in 2007.
S.C. Yuter is a New York attorney with a doctorate in international law. Further details of his proposal can be found on his website, www.mefta.org
(07.26.05, 12:12)
Read all about the people behind MEFTA made, and see why Israel's politicians did, and are doing, to try to make MEFTA a reality:
3) Listen to the show I did Tuesday morning with Jim Capo (pronounced Cay-po), National Coordinator on U.S. Trade Policy, of the John Birch Society. He explains how nations signing these trade agreements give up much of their sovereignty to a third party, namely, the WTO (World trade Organization) connected to the United Nations. The WTO/UN will be a new boss of the region after these trade agreements are signed. Frightened? You should be.
SOME EXAMPLES OF WHATS HAPPENING REF 2010-JUST BY SEARCHING GOOGLE
Press Release
These two proposals call on all WTO members to advance free trade and complete ...
WTO members would eliminate all tariffs at or below 5 percent by 2010, ...
www.commerce.gov/opa/press/Secretary_Evans/2002_Releases
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