US embassy cable - 03AMMAN8467

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