Told you so....
Well, I'm afraid that the routine lament about Europe being an economic giant and a geopolitical dwarf will be easily solved.... the other way around: I expect the EU's economic clout to progressively scale down to match its geopolitical smallness....
Excerpted from:
Message 16999516
U.S. opens talks on a free-trade pact with Morocco
Elizabeth Becker The New York Times
Wednesday, January 22, 2003
WASHINGTON The Bush administration began negotiations for a free-trade agreement with Morocco on Tuesday, emphasizing the importance of expanding U.S. economic ties with the Muslim world and pledging to try to complete the accord within one year.
While U.S. trade with Morocco is miniscule - American exports only $475 million worth of goods to the North African each year - both sides said this new agreement would help cement Morocco's role as a business hub connecting the region to Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
Ambassador Robert Zoellick, the U.S. trade representative, said he hoped the timing of these negotiations would encourage other Muslim nations to see the benefits derived from opening up their economies to trade - from more jobs to a greater respect for the rule of law.
"Arabs and Muslims can and must be part of the widening circle," said Zoellick at a press conference held with Taib Fassi-Fihri, the foreign minister delegate of Morocco.
"It is a signal of American support for tolerant, moderate and modern Arab societies," he said.
But with the administration's focus on the war on terrorism and its intense preparations for a possible war with Iraq, the message may get lost if Zoellick fails to adopt a comprehensive plan for greater trade with the Arab world, according to Charlene Barshefsky, the trade representative during the Clinton administration.
Pointing to the region's dependence on oil, its economic stagnation and the fact that its population has doubled since 1980 while its share of world trade has fallen by 75 percent, Barshefsky said it was urgent that the Bush administration offer simpler trade solutions like one-way trade preferences that would bring far more Arab and Muslim nations into the world of trade.
"Economic integration and free trade tend to promote economic growth and give young, angry and unemployed populations an alternative to terrorism - the alternative of an economic future," she said.
Zoellick said the administration was trying to spread free trade across the Middle East, with efforts underway to expand trade with Bahrain and Egypt and with Saudi Arabia to help that country become a member of the World Trade Organization.
The competition between the United States and Europe over trade with Morocco, a country that imports $11 billion a year, blew up into a surprising diplomatic quarrel last week. French officials were said to have raised questions about Morocco's ability to have free trade with the United States and Europe. Zoellick responded with a riposte, accusing France of refusing to recognize that Morocco is no longer its colony.
iht.com
Europe's Al-Qaeda-busters must be terribly confused.... Just as they keep chasing down Moroccans throughout their immigrant innercities (remember: Moussaoui is a Moroccan national), and after they successfully kept the pushy Turks at bay (that is, outside the EU), US Trade envoy Zoellick pledges that "Arabs and Muslims can and must be part of the widening circle... It is a signal of American support for tolerant, moderate and modern Arab societies...."
Isn't it ironic? Or is the US gradually isolating Europe? Or is the US taking advantage of Europe isolating herself?? |
