Peace Dividend Brings no Gains (Jordan)

[Aidoneus]

ECONOMY-JORDAN: Peace Dividend Brings no Gains
Emad Mekay

AMMAN, Jul 4 (IPS) - Eight years after Jordan was promised prosperity for signing a peace deal with Israel, many find that economic conditions have worsened.

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The United States brokered a peace agreement between Jordan, a small Arab country that emerged from the post-World War I division of the Middle East by Britain and France, and Israel in October 1994. This was held up as a model for future peace agreements between Israel and its other Arab neighbours.

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But Jordanians, who now count nearly five million people, say they live with harder economic realities than before, starting from higher prices as result of trade liberalisation to lifting of subsidies on basic goods.

They also complain of higher taxes while salaries remain the same. Unemployment has risen, and there have been no marked reforms to bureaucracy.

The Jordanian government introduced sweeping changes two years ago as the United States drew the country, which borders Israel on the West and Iraq on the East, further into its orbit.

The pension system is being overhauled to reduce liabilities. Taxes are higher on certain goods and services. The privatisation programme has accelerated to cover most remaining public sector enterprises, including cement companies and oil refineries. The government has sold 34 of its 40 major transport, electricity, water, and telecommunications companies.

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”Jordan's experience with U.S.-led free trade, peace and development is a model of warning for the rest of the region,” Pete W. Moore who teaches political science at the University of Miami in Florida wrote in the publication of the Washington-based The Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP). ”The effort to link trade and peace negotiations in Jordan has failed.” (END/2003)

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