The US-Oman free trade deal sets the trend for future American-Middle Eastern relations, reports Emad Mekay from Washington Despite protests over Oman's record on labour standards, human rights and the environment, the United States Senate has approved a free trade agreement that includes strong foreign policy components and which officials here hope to set as a model for future bilateral free trade deals. The Senate passed the US-Oman Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act with a 60 to 34 vote. While the deal will have economic benefits for the United States, it is viewed as heavily political. The approval came after the Omani government agreed to drop an Arab League boycott of Israeli products, in place since Israel occupied Arab land in 1967. The Bush administration has used its economic and political clout to make the integration of Israel in the Arab world a cornerstone of its trade agenda in the region. Furthermore, the US congress has insisted that any Arab nation wanting to expand trade with the US must agree to open their market to Israeli goods. Last year, as part of a deal to help Saudi Arabia join the World Trade Organisation, Washington pressured the Saudi royal family to drop parts of its boycott of Israel. It also pressured Egypt into further committing to industrialised zones with the Jewish state. So far, Washington has established free trade deals in the region with Jordan, Israel, Morocco and Bahrain. Egypt and the United Arab Emirates could be next in line. Signing trade deals with the region took on an added dimension after the 11 September 2001 terror attacks, with the George W Bush administration insisting that such agreements would boost US national security. Several other US officials routinely cite recommendations by the 9-11 Commission claiming that Washington should promote economic ties, trade, and security relations with countries in the Middle East as a rationale for inking new free trade deals. Oman had previously exchanged trade offices with Israel but then closed the Israeli Trade Office in October 2000, in the wake of public demonstrations against Israel at the start of the second Intifada. The trade agreement formally ends Oman's ability to repeat this episode. US businesses have also set their sights on the economic benefits of such deals. Under the latest pact, Oman, which occupies the southeast corner of the Arabian Peninsula, has agreed to open its market of three million people to US goods and services, to be accountable for intellectual property rights violations, to sell state-owned companies and to pass legal reforms that promote foreign investment. In his letter sending the legislation to Congress on Tuesday, President Bush said the pact will demonstrate "for other developing countries the advantages of open markets and increased trade", as well as strengthening links with "a moderate Muslim nation". US trade with Oman totaled just $1.1 billion in 2005. The deal would provide immediate duty-free access for all US consumer and industrial goods and up to 87 per cent of US agricultural products entering the country. Yet despite its relatively small size, the Oman deal has met stiff resistance from labour groups, environmentalists and social justice activists who, along with a number of Congressional Democrats, oppose the deal on labour and human rights grounds. Some 416 US and international organisations released a letter to Congress on Tuesday decrying the trade deal because it is modeled on the 12-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that binds Mexico, Canada and the United States. The groups, including the trade union confederation AFL- CIO, the Citizens Trade Campaign, the National Farmers Union, and the Sierra Club, complained that the Oman deal has no credible enforcement of labour and environmental protections, and warned that it could turn Oman into "a sweatshop apparel export platform". Ruled by the autocratic regime of Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, Oman has had exceptionally substandard labour laws similar to those in Jordan -- another country with a free trade agreement with Washington whose abuses came to light in a recent report by the New York-based National Labor Committee. Oman also lacks legislation to comply with international environmental commitments. For example, under the deal, Oman is not required to adhere to key treaties on biodiversity and species protection. The agreement only requires that the country enforce its own environmental laws. Some Democrats in Congress also mentioned that they were concerned about the deal's impact on jobs and the economy here in the United States. "Oman's laws remain in serious violation of the International Labor Organisation's most important and fundamental rights -- the freedom of association and the right to organise and bargain collectively," said Congressman Michael H Michaud, who joined representatives Linda Sanchez, Jan Schakowsky, Dale Kildee and Hilda Solis in announcing their opposition to the deal in a press conference on Tuesday. The Arab nation allows no independent trade unions, and so-called "workers' committees" are state-affiliated. Even when they exist, those organisations cannot discuss wages, hours, or conditions of employment. Like other oil-rich countries in the Gulf, Oman relies on foreign workers from neighbouring India, Bangladesh and Egypt, who comprise about 80 per cent of the workforce in the private sector, where abuse is rife and slave-like conditions have been widely reported. "It is deeply disappointing that President Bush has decided to allow goods made with slave labour, forced labour, or labour from human trafficking to benefit from US free-trade agreements," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid in a statement. "I don't think the American public believes that foreign producers using outrageous labour practices should be able to get special access to the US market." Some Democrats have also criticised the deal, claiming it may worsen the US trade deficit, which hit a record-shattering $726 billion last year. They noted that the United States has lost more than three million manufacturing jobs since 1998, partly because of free trade agreements and similar deals. "The Oman FTA will accelerate job loss and lower living standards in the United States, while increasing poverty in the nations we trade with," Michaud warned. Such fears have clearly not served to deter the US senate in their decision to approve the free trade deal with Oman.
