US official calls for more market access
Gulf Times
16 November 2006
US official calls for more market access
Staff Reporter
QATAR should open up the insurance sector to 100% foreign ownership, do away with agents and consultants from trade deals and revoke the ban on American beef, a senior US Department of Commerce official urged yesterday.
“These are areas which could be improved and augment the progress of the economy, which is benefiting from initiatives for liberalisation and diversification,” Assistant Secretary for Market Access and Compliance, David Bohigian, explained.
The visiting official was addressing a press conference in the presence of US Ambassador Chase Untermeyer, at the latter’s official residence.
“Foreign ownership in the insurance sector would bring in capital, management talent and a whole set of procedures that are world class,” he pointed out.
Referring to the use of agents and consultants, Bohigian maintained that they unnecessarily add friction to a relationship that could otherwise be mutually beneficial to those concerned.
On the prevailing ban on beef imports from the US to Qatar, enforced a little over two years ago in the wake of the mad cow disease scare, the official stated “it is time for Qatar to remove the ban.
“Frankly, it doesn’t make sense that the Qatari government, with its commitment to openness, is not reopening the market to US beef, despite that it is accepted almost universally, including in the Gulf,” he asserted.
The official was of the view that more transparency in the government procurement process would allow the government and the people to get goods and services at the quality and price they deserve.
“Acceding to the government procurement agreement is something that would give Qatar even more credibility in the World Trade Organisation,” he stressed.
Hailing the liberalisation of the telecommunication sector in Qatar, Bohigian said it is not only about lower prices for consumers, but also about spill over effects into various sectors, that result in creating enormous value, as it has been the case throughout the world.
“Telecommunication liberalisation we have seen globally, has been one key underpinning of the boom in growth and productivity rates and the overall economic growth,” he recalled.
Bohigian said the recent and present path of Qatar, by way of infrastructure development, commitment to education, its people, and diversification of the economy, bodes well for a strong future.
“Qatar should continue to liberalise, because that would expose the business sector and everyone to the ways of successful companies and people (elsewhere),” he maintained.
Pointing out that US exports to Qatar almost doubled in the last two years, Bohigian attributed it to the strength of Qatar’s economy and the ability and wisdom of the leadership to diversify from hydrocarbons.
Asked about opportunities for Qatari firms and businessmen to invest in the US, the assistant secretary said that except for certain restrictions in the national security interests, his country’s economy was the most major open one in the world.
Regarding the status of Free Trade Agreement negotiations with Qatar, the official indicated that progress is a virtual impossibility given that the trade promotion authority granted to the US Congress by the Executive branch expires in June 2007.
Qatar and US had signed a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement in 2004 as a precursor in this regard.
