Qatar freezes free trade talks with US: report

DOHA (Reuters) – Qatar has frozen bilateral free trade
talks with the United States due to disagreements over U.S.
preconditions, Qatar’s ambassador in Washington was quoted on
Saturday as saying.

“Negotiations regarding free trade between Qatar and the
U.S. are frozen right now. In time we would be happy to go back
to the negotiating table, but there issues that need to be
solved first,” Nasser bin Hamed al-Khalifa told Qatar’s
Al-Sharq daily.

Officials in Doha were not available for comment.

The ambassador was quoted as saying he blamed the deadlock
on U.S. trade preconditions placed on the pro-Western Gulf Arab
state and that “talks were going nowhere.”

“We do not need to run left and right looking for which
country is going to give us better conditions or preferential
treatment … we do not accept preconditions or preferential
treatment. Our major export is gas, and it is needed throughout
the world,” he was quoted as saying.

OPEC member Qatar is home to the world’s third largest
reserves of natural gas and is a member of the World Trade
Organization (WTO).

The ambassador said the trade frameworks established by the
WTO were sufficient. “I believe that the (WTO framework) is
enough for the time being,” the paper quoted him as saying.

A bilateral agreement with the United States would not
necessarily be better for Qatar, the ambassador added, saying
it would “not reflect on the reality of the country’s needs.”