Pressure on the Bahraini government has been growing in recent days from an unexpected direction – the country’s Gulf Arab neighbours. The issue at stake is the free trade agreement Bahrain is on course for with the United States, which other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) fear may undermine efforts to create greater economic union amongst themselves. Yet Bahraini officials deny any impropriety – so with finance ministers from the Gulf due to discuss the issue early next month, all eyes are now on Manama to see which way it will now go.
The US-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was signed back in September, though is yet to come into force. It forms part of a raft of such deals Washington is pursuing, with the eventual aim of creating a bloc of free trading nations across the Middle East and North Africa. So far, the US has also inked such deals with Morocco, Jordan and Israel, and announced earlier this week that it would pursue FTAs with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman as well.
