Jordan uses Haifa port to transport its exports
Jordan, Economics, 3/14/2003

The Jordanian minister of commerce and industry Salah al-Bashir announced yesterday that Jordan intends to increase the volume of its exports to the USA in case the Iraqi market is closed and that he will use the Israeli port of Haifa to transport its exports to the USA.

Replying to a question on the impact of a possible war against Iraq, the kingdom's main economic partner, on Jordan's economy, the Jordanian minister of commerce and industry said "we will increase our exchanges with the USA in order to compensate for the closure of the Iraqi market.

The minister who was talking to a group of world media journalists said that the port of Haifa will remain open. He said we do not expect Israel to close its borders with Egypt and we do believe that the part of Haifa will remain open.

He indicated that the majority of the Jordanian exports go through the port of Haifa, in remarks to the Jordanian exports, exempted from fees to the American markets in the course of what is called the private industrial zones. The Jordanian minister said "we will use the port of Haifa in transporting our exports."

Jordan has 7 private industrial zones since the USA had decided in 1996 to exempt from taxes Jordanian imports from these zones. It is expected to establish other four zones of this sort shortly.

Just recently, the Jordanian prime minister announced that 20% of the Jordanian exports go to the American market and 20% others to Iraq.

The value of the Jordanian exports to the USA increased from 13 million dollars in 1999 to 415 million in 2002, including 95 % of garments produced in the private industrial zones.

Meantime, the Jordanian ministry of industry and commerce announced that the customs fees imposed on the Jordanian goods and commodities exported to the US will be zero by the fall of 2006, according to the free trade agreement signed between the two countries. The ministry's secretary general Farouk al-Hadidi said in a statement yesterday that the customs fees on the American goods and commodities imported to Jordan will be zero, for its turn, by the beginning of 2010.

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