US investments in Jordan worth $2.2 billion — Murad

AMMAN — US investments in Jordan stand at $2.2 billion, constituting 8 per cent of the entire investments in Jordan which reached around $28 billion by the end of 2014, Amman Chamber of Commerce (ACC) President Issa Murad said Wednesday. 

At a workshop organised by the ACC, attended by US Ambassador to Jordan Alice G. Wells, Murad described the free trade agreement between Jordan and the US as a “success story” that benefited both countries.

The US is one of the most important commercial partners to Jordan, particularly that the trade exchange between the two countries has recently increased by over sixfold, Murad said, according to a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times.

The ACC president said that Jordan was the first country in the region to sign the Qualified Industrial Zones agreement in 1997, under which Jordanian products reached the US markets without custom fees and quantity restrictions. 

After 2010, Murad added, most Jordanian goods became exempted from custom fees and quantity restrictions thanks to the Free Trade Agreement with the US which was signed in 2000. 

Industry, Trade and Supply Ministry Secretary General Maha Ali said that US-Jordanian commercial ties developed during the past few years, with national exports to the US in 2014 reaching $1.3 billion. 

Regarding the joint commercial and economic relations, Wells noted that the US-Jordanian trade exchange volume in 2014 reached $3.2 billion.

She also said that the Jordanian ICT sector’s exports to the US stand at $70 million, constituting 20 per cent of the Kingdom’s production in this sector.