ISDS Case Map
Bilateral deal-making involving governments of West Asia.
Photo: tbz.foto / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
West Asia
Bilateral deal-making involving governments of West Asia.
Syrian Minister of Economy and Trade Dr. 'Amir Lutfi, and Iran's Minister of Housing and Cities' Construction Muhammad Said Kya met on Sunday to discuss issues connected with the Free Trade Zone agreement and the agreement of Differential Trade, reports the official Syrian news agency SANA.
The US hopes to see during this year the beginning of the process to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Qatar, Ambassador Chase Untermeyer told a press conference on Thursday.
The United States and Iraq have signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) to promote bilateral trade and help Iraq expand and diversify its economy.
The Syrian government has taken prominent human rights activists to task for calling on the EU not to sign a billion-dollar trade deal with Damascus due to its poor human rights record.
Singapore and Qatar are close to signing a free trade agreement after ending their final round of negotiations yesterday, the city-state’s trade ministry said.
With free trade agreements, come political leverage. Realising this, the United States is moving fast to sign bilateral FTAs with Gulf countries - in the hope that Washington would be able to fill a vacuum because of the slowness of these Arab states in starting any regional trading mechanisms of their own.
Mr. William Lash, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce, stated to Al-Hayat that "the amount of American investments in the Middle East has reached $90 Billion Dollars". He also revealed that the "American private sector investments in Qatar reached three billion dollars while the rate of trade exchange with Qatar is $800 million dollars."
An agreement on the protection and promotion of investments between Bahrain and Germany is due to be signed "very soon". Germany is also pushing for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the European Union and the GCC.
State Minister Kürşad Tüzmen, on the third day of a visit to Jordan, said that Turkey had presented the draft text of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Turkey and Jordan to Jordanian Prime Minister Faysal Fayez, reported the Anatolia news agency.
While the media and the public focus on the deadly turmoil in Iraq, business lobbyists have turned their attention to another side of the fragile Middle East region.
