A U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement (FTA) would have no measurable impacts on total U.S. exports, total U.S. imports, U.S. production, or U.S. employment, reports the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in its publication Economic Impact on the United States of a U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement.

The ITC, an independent, nonpartisan, factfinding federal agency, recently completed the report for the U.S. Trade Representative. As requested, the ITC provided an overview of the Jordanian economy; data on Jordan's trade patterns with the United States and other major trade partners; a description of the tariff and investment relationship between the United States and Jordan; and an analysis of any sector for which there are significant economic impacts from a U.S.-Jordan FTA. Following are highlights of the report:

• The United States had total merchandise exports of $642 billion in 1999, compared with $270 million merchandise exports to Jordan. Major U.S. exports to Jordan in 1999 were cereals (primarily wheat, rice, and corn) and machinery. The United States had total merchandise imports of $1 trillion in 1999, compared with $31 million merchandise imports from Jordan. Major U.S. imports from Jordan in 1999 were jewelry, carpets, apparel, and antiques.

• Jordan's two major import sectors in 1999 were machinery and transportation equipment and food and live animals. Iraq and the United States were the top suppliers of Jordan's imports in 1999. Jordan's major export sectors were chemicals (medicaments, fertilizer) and crude materials (phosphates, potash). India, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates were Jordan's top export markets in 1999.

• The ITC selected the following 16 sectors for qualitative analysis: animal and vegetable fats and oils; cereals (wheat, rice, corn); citrus fruit and juices; crude petroleum; electronics; fertilizers; iron and steel mill products; jewelry; live animals; machinery and transportation equipment; nuts; pharmaceuticals; phosphates; potash; textiles and apparel; and vegetables. Services were not included in the sector analysis because the volume of U.S.-Jordan trade in services is too small to be reflected in published data.

• An FTA with Jordan is not expected to have a measurable impact on U.S. imports from Jordan for 15 of the 16 sectors reviewed by qualitative analysis. For one sector, textiles and apparel, a likely rise in U.S. imports of apparel products from Jordan is expected to have a negligible effect on total U.S. imports. Some of the expected increase in U.S. apparel product imports from Jordan would be apparel products that are currently assembled in Jordan from fabric cut to shape in Israel and exported from Israel to the United States free of duty as a product of Israel under 1996 amendments to the U.S.-Israel FTA.

• Any sectoral increases in U.S. exports to Jordan or U.S. imports from Jordan from tariff elimination would be insignificant relative to the total volume of U.S. exports and U.S. imports. Thus, there are no measurable impacts on total U.S. exports, total U.S. imports, U.S. production, or U.S. employment from a U.S.-Jordan FTA.

ITC general factfinding investigations, such as this one, cover matters related to tariffs or trade and are generally conducted at the request of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Senate Committee on Finance, or the House Committee on Ways and Means. The resulting reports convey the Commission's objective findings and independent analyses on the subjects investigated. The Commission makes no recommendations on policy or other matters in its general factfinding reports. Upon completion of each investigation, the ITC submits its findings and analyses to the requester. General factfinding investigation reports are subsequently released to the public, unless they are classified by the requester for national security reasons.