U.S.-Jordan Trade Deal Is Likely Today

In what would be the first U.S. free-trade pact with an Arab nation, White House officials today plan to sign a sweeping accord with the kingdom of Jordan as a way to strengthen a moderate ally in the Middle East peace process.

The unusual pact also is the first to address criticisms that globalization exploits workers and degrades the environment. In a precedent-setting action, it contains provisions on both issues that could serve as starting points for talks with other nations.

A White House signing ceremony, to be attended by Jordanian King Abdullah II, is tentatively set for today. Jordanian officials, who are often criticized by radical neighbors for their friendly posture toward the West, lobbied hard for the agreement, which they can cite as a tangible reward for their efforts.

“The symbolic benefits and the material benefits are of immense value to Jordan,” said Anthony H. Cordesman, a Middle East scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

Such a deal, he added, has no downside for the United States and can be viewed by Arabs as an example of U.S. evenhandedness in the Middle East.

Indeed, Jordan would join Israel, Mexico and Canada as the only countries with free-trade relationships with the United States.

Egypt has asked for a similar arrangement with the United States, but American officials doubt Cairo’s readiness to adopt all the market-opening commitments that would be required.

The new pact “will further enhance Jordan’s standing in the Arab world but also puts Jordan on an equal standing with Israel in its economic relations with the United States,” said U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky.

Jordan is considered crucial to the Middle East peace process because of the kingdom’s nonconfrontational approach to Israel and its support for peacemaking efforts. But with a large Palestinian population of its own, high unemployment and radical neighbors, Jordan’s leaders have felt acute pressure to bolster their economy.

At a Middle East summit in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt, last week, King Abdullah personally raised with President Clinton his wish to wrap up the trade deal swiftly. The White House responded by accelerating the pace, leading to today’s expected announcement.

Indeed, a push to use American financial power in the cause of Middle Eastern peacemaking has quietly been gaining strength. This summer, a bipartisan group of 28 senators, including Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, asked Clinton to start free-trade talks with Egypt. A similar letter, signed by House Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas, has also been making the rounds.

“A U.S.-Egypt free-trade agreement, when combined with free-trade arrangements with Israel, the Palestinians and Jordan, would form the basis for a Middle East free-trade region with the essential peace partners,” the House letter declares.

Yet the trade pact may be significant for reasons that have nothing to do with peace in the Middle East.

It embodies a cautious first effort to defuse a heated debate over labor rights and the environment, which traditionally have been kept out of the text of trade accords and consigned to side deals. U.S. labor unions, threatened by low-paid workers in poor countries, have demanded that worker rights provisions be included in economic accords. Yet poor countries have generally resisted the idea, fearful that new rules would cost them business.

In an interview, Barshefsky said the pact would affirm that Jordan must enforce its own laws on labor and the environment--a bid to answer those who say that such enforcement suffers when international trade grows. However, the deal does not impose additional standards on Jordan, she said.

“It is a simple, sensible way” to balance the various pressures, Barshefsky said. “We’re trying to appeal to what hopefully is a broad middle ground.”

The agreement could help give Vice President Al Gore an answer to Democratic critics of trade deals, although it is a subject he has shied away from on the campaign trail. Leaders of organized labor, who were angered by the Clinton administration’s strong support for normalizing economic ties with China, may view the Jordan deal as an interesting precedent for future talks, perhaps with Chile or, more broadly, within the World Trade Organization.

“Trade can and should be something that is mutually beneficial and protects the rights of men and women who work,” said David Smith, director of public policy at the AFL-CIO. “This agreement takes a step in that direction, and that’s a good thing.”

As a U.S. trading partner, Jordan is tiny. America last year exported $276 million worth of products there (less than it sells France every week), largely wheat and aircraft parts. In return, Americans bought just $12 million worth of Jordanian goods, including clothing, jewelry and suitcases.

Those totals are expected to grow sharply under the new deal, in which Jordan and the United States agree to phase out all the tariffs they charge each other over 10 years. The pact must be approved by Congress, where a smooth passage is expected next year.

The trade deal “is a powerful example to Egypt and others in the Middle East that there are great benefits to peace,” Barshefsky said.