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President
Signs U.S. - Jordan Free Trade Agreement
Statement
by the Press Secretary on Free Trade Agreement between the United
States and Jordan
.
President
Bush Signs Implementing Legislation for Free Trade Agreement
between the United States and Jordan
President
Bush signed (Friday, September
28, 2001) legislation
needed to implement the United States-Jordan Free Trade Agreement
(FTA). This agreement is a strong and tangible symbol of our
support for Jordan, for its economic reforms, and for the King's
leadership. It is the capstone of our expanding economic
partnership. This is the first Free Trade Agreement between the
United States and an Arab country.
The
U.S.-Jordan FTA will create jobs and new investment in both
countries. The agreement achieves significant liberalization
across trade areas including electronic commerce, services, and
intellectual property rights. It will eliminate tariffs between
the United States and Jordan on virtually all industrial goods and
agricultural products within ten years.
The
United States and Jordan are committed to implementing the
Agreement as quickly as possible.
Overview
U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement (FTA)
The
Jordan Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was signed on October 24, 2000.
It will take effect as America's third free trade agreement, and
the first ever with an Arab state. The FTA is the capstone of
growing U.S.-Jordanian collaboration in economic relations, which
began with close bilateral cooperation on Jordan's accession to
the World Trade Organization (WTO) and was followed by the
conclusion of a trade and investment framework agreement and a
bilateral investment treaty. The FTA serves as an example for
Jordan's neighbors of the benefits of peace and economic reform.
The
Jordan FTA achieves significant and extensive liberalization
across a wide spectrum of trade issues. It will eliminate all
tariff and non-tariff barriers to bilateral trade in virtually all
industrial goods and agricultural products within ten years.
The
FTA is the first trade agreement to include substantive provisions
addressing electronic commerce, a step that should help advance a
global free trade agenda in a sector critical to American high
technology and multimedia companies. Both countries agreed to seek
to avoid imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions,
imposing unnecessary barriers to market access for digitized
products, and impeding the ability to deliver services through
electronic means. These provisions also tie in with commitments in
the services area that, taken together, aim at encouraging
investment in new technologies and stimulating the innovative uses
of networks to deliver products and services. The agreement will
significantly liberalize bilateral trade in services across a wide
range of services sectors.
The
FTA's provisions on intellectual property rights (IPR) build on
the strong IPR commitments Jordan made in acceding to the WTO. The
FTA incorporates the most up-to-date international standards for
copyright protection, as well as data exclusivity for
pharmaceuticals and stepped-up commitments on enforcement. Among
other things, Jordan has undertaken to ratify and implement the
World Intellectual Property Organization's (WIPO) Copyright Treaty
and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty within two years.
These two treaties, sometimes referred to as the "Internet
Treaties," establish several critical elements for the
protection of copyrighted works in a digital network environment,
including creators' exclusive right to make their creative works
available online, as well as Jordanian adherence to new WIPO
treaties on copyright protection in the internet.
The
agreement also contains trade-related environmental and labor
provisions. These provisions will not require either country to
adopt any new labor or environmental laws, and each country
retains the right to set its own labor and environmental standards
and to change those standards. As part of the agreement, the two
countries affirm the importance of not waiving or derogating from
their labor or environmental laws in order to encourage trade, and
commit to effective enforcement of their domestic labor and
environmental laws.
The
Jordan FTA places a premium on cooperative resolution of disputes.
The Governments of the United States and Jordan exchanged letters
in July 2001 acknowledging that few, if any, differences are
expected to arise in how we interpret this Agreement, given the
strong and cooperative relations between our countries. In the
very unlikely event that differences arise, the Governments agreed
in the letters that they expect to resolve such situations through
consultations and other cooperative means, rather than through
formal dispute settlement procedures.
The
Jordan FTA creates a multi-step, transparent dispute settlement
process. Any dispute that cannot be resolved through consultation
may be referred to a panel of independent experts for a
non-binding opinion. If a dispute cannot be settled after panel
proceedings are completed, the FTA authorizes the affected party
to take any appropriate and commensurate measure, without
specifying the form that this action should take. However, the
party taking the action may not act in a manner that is
inconsistent with its WTO obligations. Because the United States
already has a Bilateral Investment Treaty with Jordan, the FTA
does not include an investment provision.
Jordan's
Trade Profile
Jordan
became a member of the World Trade Organization in April 2000. In
2000, U.S. exports to Jordan were $306 million. Jordanian exports
to the United States in 2000 were $73 million. Jordan has a
population of roughly 5 million and is bordered by Iraq, Israel,
Saudi Arabia and Syria.
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