Can Trade Help the Middle East?

On October 7, 2004, the Business Council for International Understanding and the National Foreign Trade Council founded the U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Coalition, in hopes that it might be the ticket to a more stable Middle East. David Shelby, Washington File Staff Writer, comments on U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick's idea that "international trade and investment can create a context for greater peace, democracy and prosperity in the Middle East." International commerce requires ongoing teamwork through the exchange of ideas across cultures and differences must be resolved for trade to occur. The result is that the Middle East, who Bush in May 2003, said had among the lowest share of international trade and investment in the world, will have conditions created through this agreeement that will foster economic growth opportunities for their country, creating more prosperity and interdependence. Zoellick suggested that the lack of economic opportunity in the Middle East in the recent past has spawned anger and despair, both which are fertile ground for extremism and terrorism. The civilizations that were born there were "pioneers of open markets and trade", and the modern Arab states are now trying to reclaim the ideas of this greater Islamic past by struggling with those who fear modernization because they are afraid it will threaten their power to intimidate (i.e., terrorists). The belief is that these terrorists may be able to be overcome by reaching goals included in the reformist vision of free parliamentary elections, the sale of state-owned businesses, a new welcome to foreign investment connected to broad-based development, and protection for the rights of women and workers. Thankfully, all of these things are one step closer to realty through the newly founded U.S.-Middle East Free Trade Coalition. To view David Shelby's article, click here: http://www.usembassy.org.uk/midest550.html