Jordan and Canada signed a free trade agreement (FTA) on Sunday, Canada’s first with an Arab country.
Under the FTA, Jordanian products will enter the Canadian market tariff and customs free as of the date the agreement goes into effect, expected to be the end of 2009.
Canadian products will benefit from a gradual decrease in tariffs and customs over a span of three to four years.
The FTA will contribute to increasing bilateral trade ties and create new export opportunities for Jordanian products in foreign markets through aggregate rules of origin with the countries that have already signed free trade agreements with both Jordan and Canada.
FTA will help boost bilateral trade, which, according to the Canadian embassy in Amman, stood at 92 million Canadian dollars (JD57 million) in 2008.
The garment and agricultural sectors, food industries and pharmaceuticals are some of the areas in the Kingdom that can benefit from the FTA.
The two countries also signed agreements on environment protection, investment protection and labour.
The agreements are bound to benefit the economy by increasing the size of Canadian investments in the Kingdom, improving labour legislation and contributing to environmental protection programmes.
