Financial Times: 'Time for a US-Georgia free trade pact'
“Emerging from the economic inertia of its communist past, Georgia is no longer described in these rankings as ‘economically repressed’ but, rather, as 'economically free’,” reads the article. Photo: Embassy of Georgia to the US.
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The Financial Times has released an article by James Bacchus titled Time for a US-Georgia free trade pact.
The author supports strengthening US economic relations with Georgia by launching a US-Georgia free trade agreement (FTA) as a “way of solidifying a positive and continuing American presence in the region [countries between Black Sea and the Arab Gulf].”
James Bacchus, the author, believes that “in a sudden and shortsighted military retreat in Syria, and with doubts growing daily about its willingness to stand by those who have supported it in the Greater Middle East,” the US should strengthen ties with the countries between the Black Sea and the Arab Gulf.
The author says that launching free trade agreement makes sense for US strategically, commercially and also morally.
Not only would it cement our ties with Georgia. It would also reassure other countries in the region that, despite recent events, the US continues to offer an alternative to acquiescence to the authoritarian regimes that surround and threaten them.“
The author reads that Georgians are looking to the EU and US for inspiration in search of freedom since securing their independence in 1991, but he highlights the hard situation in the neighbourhood of Georgia, including Russian military invasion in 2008.
The article notes the better economic conditions of Georgian economy, highlights the strong GDP growth of Georgia in 2017-2018 years (4.8 per cent) and says that Georgia is in the 16th place out of 124 in the annual Index of Economic Freedom by the Heritage Foundation.
Georgia, with its central location in Eurasia and increasingly open trade and investment regime, could serve as an entry point to a regional market of half a billion people for US companies looking to expand their exports,” reads the Financial Times.
The author also points out moral reasons for Georgia and US to proceed FTA and writes that Georgia is a ‘loyal’ and ‘reliable’ partner of the US and “Of all [US] coalition partners in Afghanistan, the rate of casualties for Georgia has been the highest on a per capita basis.”
The author says that “Georgia meets all the criteria the Trump Administration has identified as prerequisites for a bilateral trade agreement.”
See the full article here.