AMMAN - The United States pledged Monday to bolster trade with Jordan, which a senior US official described as a "cornerstone" for its bid to establish a Middle East-wide free trade pact.
The two sides also agreed to diversify their trade ties as part of their five-year-old free trade agreement, the first between the United States and an Arab country, officials said.
According to US trade official Shaun Donnelly, the success of the deal was highlighted last year when Jordanian exports to the United States rose to 1.3 billion dollars from 90 million dollars the year before.
"We have also seen in the past two years .... exports diversify beyond the textile and apparel garment sector, and exports in other sectors now total over 100 million dollars," Donnelly said after two days of talks with Jordanian Trade Minister Sherif al-Zohbi.
"We want to build a comprehensive US-Middle East free trade area," he said.
"We want to engage with each of our partner countries in the Middle East and Jordan is a cornerstone of that activity," the US official added.
In the Middle East, the United States has signed free trade agreements with Bahrain, Israel, Oman and Morocco, and is also engaged in talks with Egypt.
Jordan secured its trade deal with the world's biggest economy in October 2000, with the accord going into force in December 2001.
"We have to diversify our exports ... (beyond) garments and textiles," the Jordanian minister, Zohbi, told reporters after meeting with Donnelly.
Jordan was also seeking "to speed up the tariffs reduction" period, Zohbi said.
According to the agreement, US tariffs on imports from Jordan will be phased out completely by 2010.
"The United States is Jordan's second largest trade partner after Saudi Arabia, with 33 percent of our exports going to the American market," said Zohbi.
Garments and textiles account for 90 percent of all Jordan's exports to the United States, Zohbi said, adding the private sector was working hand in hand with the government to diversify its US-bound exports.
"We are cooperating with the private sector to diversify the exports to include medicine, jewellery, electrical appliances, electronic goods and cooling systems," Zohbi said.
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