[PEN-L:28340] Jordan set to ink free trade deal with Iraq

["Ulhas Joglekar" <joglekarulhas@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Times of India

TUESDAY, JULY 23, 2002

Jordan set to ink free trade deal with Iraq

AFP

BAGHDAD: Iraq, which has signed a series of free trade agreements with its
Arab neighbours recently amid US threats against its regime, agreed on
Monday to increase its business and economic cooperation with Jordan.

The Iraqi trade minister Mohammed Mahdi Saleh signed an agreement "to
enlarge business and economic cooperation" with his visiting Jordanian
counterpart Salah Bashir, the state INA news agency reported.

Bashir, who arrived Friday leading a trade delegation, has met with several
senior Iraqi officials, including deputy prime minister Hekmat Ibrahim
al-Azzawi, and the industry and minerals minister, Mayssar Raja Shalah.

He was earlier in the day quoted in Jordan's Al-Doustour daily as saying
Jordan would follow the example of other Arab states in signing a free trade
agreement with Iraq -- despite Western press reports it is a likely staging
post for a threatened US strike on Jordan's neighbour.

"The Jordanian and Iraqi governments are determined to seal a free trade
agreement," Al-Dustour quoted Trade and Industry Minister Salah Bashir as
saying during a four-day visit to Baghdad.

"The deal will be signed in Baghdad soon at the heads of government level,"
Bashir told the paper, without elaborating on when Prime Minister Ali Abu
Ragheb would visit Iraq.

The minister recalled that the two countries were already bound by a trade
agreement dating back to 1957, which grants duty-free access for certain
goods and has helped make Iraq Jordan's main Arab trade partner.

A free trade agreement would "provide the two countries' private sectors
with more scope to strengthen bilateral trade," he said.

Jordanian exports to Iraq reached 230 million dollars in 2001. An agreement
for the current year provides for that to rise to 260 million.

Jordan also relies on its sanctions-hit neighbour for all its oil supplies
and is expected to import some 5.5 million tonnes of Iraqi crude this year,
Under their current oil arrangement, Jordan receives half the oil supplies
for free and half at a preferential rate below market prices.

Jordan benefits from a special exemption from the 12-year-old UN trade
embargo on Iraq, granted in deference to the two countries longstanding
ties.

It is also a favoured supplier of Iraq under the six-year-old UN
oil-for-food programme, which allows for the import of essential supplies.

Amman would be the 11th Arab government to sign a free trade deal with
Baghdad, in a trend that has sparked mounting concern in Washington.

Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab
Emirates and Yemen have all already ratified such agreements.

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