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Qatar freezes free trade talks with US: report

Posted on: Saturday, 29 April 2006, 10:48 CDT

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."

Source: REUTERS

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