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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 27 October 1999 Issue No. 452 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 21 - 27 October 1999 Issue No. 452
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Regional cooperation revisited
By Dina EzzatWestern and Israeli attempts to encourage Egypt to reconsider regional cooperation schemes have recently intensified with US Secretary of Commerce William Daley and Arthur Dunkel, chairman of (STIMENA) Swiss Initiative for Trade in the Middle East and North Africa, speaking with Foreign Minister Amr Moussa about the need to revive cooperation.
And this week, a senior Israeli official was also in Cairo for the same reason -- nagging Egypt to embrace bilateral cooperation with Israel and wider regional cooperation that includes Israel.
The three men all stressed that the region entered "a new phase" with the Israeli government of Ehud Barak and that it is therefore time to reactivate regional cooperation projects.
"We need to work for the goal of trying to improve the entire [world] economy and especially that of the region of the Middle East that has not shared, in many ways, the economic benefits that have gone to other parts of the world," said Daley following his talks with Foreign Minister Moussa last Thursday.
He added: "We are optimistic that the peace process will continue to move forward and give the opportunity to have once again, hopefully in Egypt some time next year, the MENA [Middle East and North Africa] conference, which is extremely important...the goal is to see greater regional trade."
Qualifying Industrial Zones [QIZs] are one way in which the US is trying to encourage inter-regional trade between Israel and its three peace partners: Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
The QIZ concept, as outlined in a US presidential proclamation of November 1996, revolves around conditional free trade zones with the US that could include Israel and either one or more of its three Arab peace partners but which cannot include Arab countries without Israel.
According to the US formulated rules commodities produced in Gaza and the West Bank would also be entitled to customs exemptions, though the volume of Palestinian exports to the US is minimal. Egypt has yet to agree to the operation QIZs, though Jordan has already signed agreements with Israel sanctioning two QIZs.
Cairo's position does not appear to have changed in the wake of Daley's visit, with Egypt continuing to insist that serious regional economic cooperation be linked with substantial progress on all tracks of the peace process.
The US is likely to remain inflexible over the operation of the QIZs, maintaining the condition that Israel be involved. "We all know the Palestinian situation in the West Bank and Gaza has been horrendous so far as the economic situation [is concerned]," Daley admitted. Yet he argued that "the goal of those QIZs -- that I think Egypt fully supports -- was to create the opportunity to give the Palestinians the chance along the Jordanian borders to bring together Jordanian, Israeli, and Palestinian business people to create jobs and hopefully create a greater integration of economies that will support the peace process."
Daley discussed the issue of QIZs with Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, Foreign Minister Moussa and Economy Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali. He insisted that Egypt and the US would return to the issues, possibly through a working group that would analyse the current state and future potentials of the QIZs from an Egyptian perspective.
Only a day before his meeting with Daley, Moussa had met with Arthur Dunkel, chairman of STIMENA, to discuss its reactivation.
STIMENA was launched in 1994 with the intention of exploring trade opportunities among the four core peace partners in the Middle East -- Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinians and Israel. The focus of the study was trade relations between Israel and the Palestinians and the obstacles placed by Israel on trade conducted by the PA.
Dunkel argued that it is time to update STIMENA following the demise of former Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and, following his meeting with Moussa, told reporters that "we are in a new phase. There is a new government in Israel that has stated positions which lead us to hope that some issues will be easier to overcome now than was the case some years ago...Today we are working hard with the different parties of the region."
Stating his belief that "it is possible through close economic and trade relations to reinforce more peaceful relationships among the countries of the region," Dunkel added that he was "looking forward to the steps that have to be taken, particularly with regards to the relationship between the Palestinians and Israelis in the direction of the economic permanent status".
Egypt has raised no objections to Dunkel's plans and hopes that an updated study might help point to ways in which Egypt can increase its exports to the PA, provided it can overcome the many obstacles Israel places in the way of Arab-PA trade.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Communications Benyamin Eliezer met with Moussa.
"I mentioned to Minister Amr Moussa that since our government has taken office -- as Egypt must be aware -- the majority of our efforts are for the peace process...I also discussed with the minister the problem of multilateral talks and I hope that all will be well," he announced following the meeting.
Israel's deputy premier also met with his new Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Nazif, offering "a long list" of potential areas of cooperation between the two countries.
Egypt, though, according to the foreign minister, is sticking to its guns, insisting on a strict linkage between regional cooperation and progress in the peace process.
Cairo's support for the resumption of multilateral talks remains conditional on resumption of negotiations on all tracks of the peace process. And for the next MENA conference to take place in Egypt some time in mid-2000 real progress will have to be made on the Palestinian track. Bilateral cooperation between Egypt and Israel will only be upgraded if Israel works on keeping the peace process in shape.
Said Moussa: "This is our stance. We have not changed that. We are sticking to it."
