This is an update of the FT article we circulated previously, "US retaliation against Egypt hits trade plans"
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1054966520080
When President George W. Bush announced plans last month for a Middle East free trade area by 2013, Robert Zoellick, his trade representative, said Egypt would be the linchpin.
"Egypt has for centuries been the heart of the Arab world," he said
"...for the US, Egypt's participation in the WTO case was critical to support its claim that the EU ban is hurting poor countries."
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US beats Egypt with trade stick
By EDWARD ALDEN, WASHINGTON
Financial Times, June 30, 2003
The US has suspended plans to advance free trade talks with Egypt, in response to the Arab country's decision not to join the US in a World Trade Organisation complaint against Europe's ban on genetically modified foods.
When President George W. Bush announced plans last month for a Middle East free trade area by 2013, Robert Zoellick, his trade representative, said Egypt would be the linchpin.
"Egypt has for centuries been the heart of the Arab world," he said, adding that he would like to launch talks on a bilateral free-trade agreement by early next year.
But last week, Mr Zoellick delivered a very different message, accusing Egypt of backsliding on economic reform and saying that a free-trade agreement "isn't going to be handed to them just because Egypt is a big and important country".
The reason for those harsh words was buried in a digression on the difficulty of getting trade deals through Congress. "I believe in open markets," he said, "but we all have political challenges and so when I'm working with a colleague I need to know their word is good."
Mr Zoellick, administration officials say, is furious over the decision by Egypt - which grows drought-resistant GM crops for export - to pull back its support from the WTO case.
The US announced last month that Egypt, along with Argentina and Canada, would join it in a complaint aimed at forcing the European Union to approve the sale of new GM varieties, which have been blocked since 1998.
But an Egyptian official said the decision was strongly opposed by many members of parliament and businesses with close ties to Europe.
"The way it was announced was like a war with the EU, and we cannot go to war with the EU," he said. "It is 40 per cent of our trade."
The harsh US retaliation against one of its closest Arab allies has taken Egypt by surprise and has set back the initial stages of President Bush's plans for a region-wide free trade area by 2013. However, a US trade official said: "When you're given a direct commitment by a government and they do an about-face, that has to have an effect in terms of who you do a free-trade agreement with."
It is the most pointed example yet of a growing US willingness to use trade to reward its friends and punish its opponents - an equation Egypt, the largest Arab recipient of US foreign aid, did not expect to end up on the wrong side of.
But for the US, Egypt's participation in the WTO case was critical to support its claim that the EU ban is hurting poor countries. While the case is backed by some other developing countries, only Argentina among them produces GM crops. www.ft.com/globaleconomy
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PINNING DOWN THE PR LIES - COMPREHENSIVE, READABLE, REVELATORY
Aaron deGrassis's "Genetically Modified Crops and Sustainable Poverty Alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Assessment of Current Evidence" Download the full report:
http://www.twnafrica.org/docs/GMCropsAfrica.pdf
Read the press release:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200306240443.html
For the section on the biotech industry's PR use of Africa:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=1006
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