■"U.S. Free-Trade Deals Include Few Muslim Countries," by Paul Blustein, Washington Post, 3 December 2004, p. E1.
Sad to note, but America is not doing that much to generate broadband economic connectivity between Muslim countries and the outside world when it comes to trade deals.
We've cut preferential deals with countries in sub-Saharan Africa in recent years and exports, in some cases, have increased by almost 40% since 2000. Meanwhile, imports from Muslim countries, excluding oil, have increased just over 3% since 2000.
Here's my new friend Brink Lindsey of CATO Institute sounding off on this issue:
"It is hard to argue that the greater Muslim world is of less strategic interest to the U.S. than the Andean region or sub-Saharan Africa . . . Our de facto discrimination against Muslim imports sends a terrible signal, and indicates we're just not putting our money where our mouth is, in terms of using every lever at our disposal to make this a safer world."
That's some pretty serious "everything else" that we're missing as we wage this Global War on Terrorism.
One Pakistani minister estimates that for every $1b in possible exports from his country to the U.S., 200,000 jobs are created in his country, supporting upwards of one million citizens. As he puts it, "Trade is a much more cost-effective way [than aid] to help a country."
Who have we cut deals with? Jordan, Morocco and Bahrain, and deals are in the works with Oman and UAE. What do none of these countries have? Much in the way of textiles. So they don't threaten domestic American manufacturers. When key counter-terror allies like Turkey and Pakistan ask for some relief, Washington basically says no.
And then there's that ending of the global textile and apparel quota system come 1 January 2005, which will only put such textile-dependent players at real risk of a dramatic downturn in exports. Their hope? Their proximity to European markets works to their advantage. At least the Europeans have been better about opening their markets than the U.S.
What pride can the U.S. claim? There is the Bush administration's offer on the table of a Middle East Free Trade Area, or MEFTA, and here the White House says it's customizing its unfolding to reward local players for reforms as they occur. But the locals say the process is too demanding and thus needlessly delays the point where real trade benefits kick in.
Is the U.S. being as picky with Arab states as the EU is with Turkey? You have to wonder.
I say, push the economic connectivity for all its worth. It's gotta be cheaper to pay off the textiles industry in the U.S. than to pay for all that defense spending.
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