ISDS Case Map
MEFTA
US-Middle East Free Trade Agreement
It is not merely the depth of suffering or length of exile that makes the Palestinian struggle an imperative of international solidarity in the current period. It is also the central location of the struggle within the broader context of global resistance to imperialism and neoliberalism. At the heart of this regional framework is the intrinsic relationship between the development of neoliberal capitalism in the Middle East and normalization of relations with Israel. All of the efforts of the US and their client regimes in the region are aimed at promoting these.
US officials are engaged in "informal" talks with several GCC countries on possibly concluding a Middle East Free Trade Agreement (Mefta) by 2014, it was revealed yesterday.
US officials are engaged in "informal" talks with several GCC countries on possibly concluding a Middle East Free Trade Agreement (Mefta) by 2014, it was revealed yesterday.
The Middle East and North Africa are in the process of being divided into spheres of influence between the European Union and the United States. Essentially the division of the Middle East and North Africa are between Franco-German and Anglo-American interests. There is a unified stance within NATO in regards to this re-division.
Carlos M. Gutierrez, the influential and persuasive US Secretary of Commerce plans to use a keynote business conference in Jordan to press home the ambition of the Bush administration to see the establishment of a regional US-Middle East Free Trade Area by the deadline of 2013.
The European Union and the United States are increasingly involved in a widening medley of trade and other agreements in the Middle East and North Africa region. As the EU and US push for more and varied free trade agreements, rivalries between these global economic giants also spur competition among Arab countries.
The US since 2000 espoused even closer links between its strategic interests and trade liberalisation. Europe is not far behind.
The aim of this paper is to try to understand the Israeli industrialists' strategy in the globalization process in the course of the recent years. The new strategy was implemented in the days of the first Intifada (the Palestinian uprising) in the late 80s. At that time voices were heard in the Association of Israeli Industrialists, the strongest organization of Israeli employers, advocating an agreement with the Palestinians which would not oppose the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, as long as the Palestinian economic dependence on Israel is preserved.
The US Ambassador William T Monroe and the Minister of Industry and Commerce Dr Hassan Abdulla Fakhro will lead the Bahraini team at the Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA) Trade and Investment Conference in London on March 29.
Foreign ministers of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) announced at the conclusion of their 26th round in Rabat that they would establish a Maghreb investment and trade bank owned by the central banks of the five AMU member states (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Mauritania) with an initial capital of $1 billion, i.e. sevenfold the total assets of their commercial banks.
