CHAIRMAN: DR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: DR. KHALID MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

Qatar

US-Qatar dialogue highlights successes of economic side

Published: 06 Feb 2018 - 11:33 am | Last Updated: 17 Nov 2021 - 02:44 pm

QNA

Doha: The US-Qatar strategic dialogue and the associated activities, whether through bilateral meetings or meetings held last week in the US capital Washington, witnessed a new opportunity to expand  economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two friendly countries to the benefit of both sides in light of the enormous potential enjoyed by each other’s economies.

The strategic dialogue  has achieved  several successes in the trade and investment side, where a number of agreements,  memoranda of understanding and letters of intent in the field of communications, smart city and combat human trafficking were signed  and other agreements will be discussed  in a meeting  to be held in Doha before the end of 2018 to discuss the agreed issues such as the Free Trade Agreement, the Investment Agreement, Intellectual Property, Trade and Food Safety Agreement.

The strategic dialogue also witnessed a number of important activities aimed at enhancing the existing cooperation between the two countries in the economic and trade fields, as well as the success of the Qatari economy during the past period and the forward future envisaged in Qatar Vision 2030.

 Minister of Economy and Commerce  H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani held a number of bilateral meetings.

He also participated in a number of activities associated with the US- Qatar Strategic Dialogue Including the reception held by the American Chamber of Commerce, as well as the inauguration of the trade and investment promotion session between the State of Qatar and the United States and his participation in the business lunch organized by the US-Qatar Business Council.

The results of these meetings showed the success of the economic, commercial and investment aspects in the US-Qatar strategic dialogue. 

The most important of these was the meeting on trade and investment promotion, which was chaired by the  Minister of Economy and Commerce.  The meeting was attended  by Minister of Finance H E Ali Shareef Al Emadi and Chairman of the Qatar Investment Authority and a number of concerned authorities in Qatar, while on  American side, it  was attended by  Assistant Minister of Economy and Business Affairs, Assistant Minister of Commerce for Global Markets and Trade Representative of the United States of America.

Among the successes of the dialogue was the meeting of the Minister of Economy and Commerce with US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur L Ross, who praised the status of US companies in Qatar and the steps taken by the State of Qatar in the shadow of the unjust siege. He affirmed his support for the Qatari economic mobility program, which will be organized from 2018 in a number of major cities in the United States. 

The Minister of Economy and Commerce also met with  Assistant United States Trade Representative for Europe and the Middle East  Daniel Mullaney to discuss the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the two countries. It was agreed that the Doha meeting would be held before the end of 2018.

The Minister also met with Ambassador Anne Patterson, Chairman of the US-Qatar Business Council, where the Minister highlighted the importance of supporting the US-Qatar Council, activating the Council’s activities and expanding its membership to include small and medium-sized enterprises.

In addition to the bilateral meetings, Minister of Economy and Commerce Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, witnessed a number of activities associated with the US-Qatari strategic dialogue, which were aimed at enhancing bilateral relations to serve the two friendly countries’ interests.  

The participation of the Minister of Economy and Commerce at the reception organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in honor of the delegation of the State of Qatar participating in the US-Qatar strategic dialogue was an opportunity to present many facts and figures about economic and trade relations and investment that linking the two countries.

These meetings were an opportunity to talk about the investment in Qatar, as one of the most stable countries in the Middle East at the political level. The Qatari economy has achieved positive growth rates despite many global and regional challenges and this growth was driven by the profits achieved by the oil sector.

The United States is the sixth trading partner of the State of Qatar. The volume of trade between the two countries reached about 6 billion dollars and is the first source of imports in 2017.

Qatar imported 16 percent of its imports from the United States. The bilateral trade balance was a surplus of $5bn for the United States.