The US and Morocco kicked off a year of trade negotiations in Geneva today, as the George W. Bush administration looks beyond the war in Iraq to build stability in Muslim countries through improved economic ties.
AOL Time Warner Inc, Merck & Co, 3M Co and other US companies have joined to press for the free trade accord, which would be only the second with a Muslim country, saying it will open the way for them to fight movie piracy and expand investment.
Negotiators moved the talks to Geneva from Rabat, the Moroccan capital, because of the war. Only 6 percent of Moroccans have a positive view of the US, according to a Brookings Institution poll published this month. Officials say that won't stand in the way of an agreement.
"If people are upset, they are upset with the war only," said Mohammed Ariad, counsel for economic affairs at the Moroccan Embassy in Washington. "They won't be looking for some excuses to be against" the trade agreement.
US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has said that opening trade with Morocco's US$34 billion economy is one step in a process of promoting economic growth and lessening the attraction of Islamic extremism across the region.
The World Bank expects annual economic growth in the Middle East to average 1.3 percent per capita during the decade, the slowest rate of any region. Half the 300 million citizens are younger than 24. One person in five is unemployed -- and the workforce is the fastest growing in the world.
The Muslim world's share of global trade and investment has sunk to less than a quarter its level of two decades ago, as nations kept some of the highest trade barriers in the world and failed to develop industries other than oil and gas, according to the World Bank. US sanctions have also curbed trade with three of the largest regional economies: Iran, Libya and Iraq.
"The Middle East has become more and more marginalized," said Edward Gresser, a former US trade official who wrote a report on trade and the region for the Progressive Policy Institute, a research arm for pro-trade Democrats.
"It's basically the fault of the countries, but we're suffering the consequences," as the faltering regional economies have left young, unemployed men susceptible to the call of terrorists, he said.
Morocco has already taken steps to open trade and modernize its economy. The North African country, while still dependent on agriculture and tourism, has seen GDP expand 50 percent faster than the rest of the region over the past 20 years, after cutting tariffs and selling state-owned enterprises, according to the World Bank.
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