PROMOTING MIDDLE EAST FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS

UNCLAS AMMAN 008467

SIPDIS

USTR FOR NED SAUMS AND DOUG BELL
USDOC 4520/ITA/MAC/ONE/PTHANOS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ETRD EAID BEXP KMPI KPAO JO
SUBJECT: PROMOTING MIDDLE EAST FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS



1. Summary. Embassy and USAID Amman would like to alert
our counterparts in Morocco and Bahrain to a January 21-
22 retreat of the "TIJARA" public-private partnership
initiative for promoting trade and investment under the
U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement. We thought these posts
might find it useful for a mission staff member and/or
one or two private sector representatives (such as AmCham
officers) to attend to learn how TIJARA works and to make
connections with Jordanian business associations. We
would also encourage Washington participation,
particularly to present current thinking on the Middle
East Free Trade Area (MEFTA) initiative. End Summary.


2. The "TIJARA" initiative is the flagship initiative to
promote bilateral trade and investment under the U.S.-
Jordan Free Trade Agreement. TIJARA is an informal
grouping of local business associations, Jordanian
government agencies, and U.S. embassy offices (the USAID
Mission, Economic Section, and FCS Office) that provides
a forum to develop and share ideas and initiatives on how
to promote knowledge of and activity under the FTA.
While individual members implement actual activities, the
TIJARA group meets monthly to brainstorm, coordinate,
strategize, and share best practices. It has been
especially successful in helping associations and
government agencies identify their comparative advantages
and value-added in promoting the FTA, while avoiding
traditional rivalries.


3. The USAID-supported AMIR program, which provides
technical assistance to the Jordanian public and private
sectors in advancing economic reforms, is hosting a two-
day retreat for TIJARA members January 21 and 22, 2004 at
the Dead Sea Marriott Hotel. The goal of the retreat
will be to refine and update the current TIJARA strategy
(http://www.jordanusfta.com/documents/tijara_ action.pdf)
and to discuss new initiatives. It occurred to us that
it could be a useful experience for representatives of
the private sectors of the other two countries in the
region negotiating FTA's with the U.S. to attend this
retreat as observers. They could observe how the TIJARA
process works for possible emulation in their countries
and also to begin to establish contacts among the private
sectors of what will soon be the three countries in the
region with FTA's. This will be especially important
given the potential for eventual cumulation of rules of
origin among such countries under MEFTA.


4. If Embassies Rabat or Manama are interested in making
this opportunity known to their private sector
colleagues, we would be happy to include them in the
retreat. We also think this would be an excellent way to
get out the MEFTA message to a diverse group of business
associations from (potentially) three countries. We
would be pleased to include a retreat session on MEFTA if
USTR, State, or Commerce were interested in sending a
presenter. If so, we would also propose some wider
public affairs programming to get out the MEPI/MEFTA
message to other groups. If Embassies or Washington are
interested in following up on this opportunity, please
contact USAID Program Officers Sean Jones
(sjones@usaid.gov) and Jamal al-Jabiri (jal-
jabiri@usaid.gov) and Economic Officer Greg Lawless
(LawlessGF@state.gov) for more information.
GNEHM