Day: October 25, 2022

Since the beginning of 2022, the Kingdom’s foreign trade has been steadily bouncing back from the lows brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic, Jordanian Businessmen Association (JBA) President Hamdi Tabbaa said on Tuesday.

Tabbaa said in a statement that upward trajectory of the Kingdom’s foreign trade is underpinned in part by its free trade pacts with a number of word countries.

He noted that the JBA has compiled a report on foreign trade for the period 2017-2021, focusing on the effects of economic developments on various foreign trade indicators.

In the first half of 2022, he continued, national exports increased by 45.5 percent compared to the same period in 2021, while imports increased by 38.6 percent, resulting in an exports-to-imports coverage ratio of 44.6 percent.

Since Jordan joined the World Trade Organization, according to Tabbaa, its policies have been geared toward removing trade restrictions and increasing national exports.

Tabbaa noted that Jordan’s “diverse” service sector contributed to the country’s service trade balance posting a surplus of about USD 2.2 billion from 2016 to 2019.

Exports of services include those related to commerce, tourism, travel, transportation, construction, finance, information technology, and insurance. The largest portion of exports, which totaled USD 2.3 billion in 2020, were trade services.

Tabbaa went on to say that as a result of the pandemic, Jordan’s service sector trade balance recorded a USD 500 million deficit in 2020, with USD 2.5 billion in exports and USD 3 billion in imports, as opposed to USD 8 billion in exports and USD 4.8 billion in imports in 2019.

According to the most recent International Trade Centre data, service sector trade exchange fell by USD7.3 billion in 2020, with Jordanian exports falling by USD5.5 billion and imports dropping by USD1.8 billion.

The fertilizers industry alone has unrealized export potential worth USD792 million, the JBA president said, not to mention the 736 million in the chemicals industry, the 576 million in the garment industry, the 506 million in the livestock industry, and the 483 million in the pharmaceuticals industry.

Source: Jordan News Agency

Newly-appointed members of the Constitutional Court were sworn in before His Majesty King Abdullah on Tuesday.

Mohammad Talal Homsi, Hani Kakish, Mohammad Isaid and Hussein Qaisi were sworn in at Al Husseiniya Palace, during a ceremony attended by Constitutional Court President Hisham Tal and Royal Hashemite Court Chief Yousef Issawi.

Under the Constitution, members of the court serve one, non-renewable six-year term.

Source: Jordan News Agency

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates on Tuesday condemned ongoing Israeli military incursions into Palestinian towns, the latest of which were dawn attacks in the cities of Nablus and Ramallah.

It warned that the military escalation would lead to a new spiral of violence for which “everyone will pay a price.”

The violence will breed more violence, it said, warning that the Israeli raids into Palestinian cities and measures to perpetuate the occupation amid the persistent stalemate in the peace process, would push for a dangerous escalation, for which Israel will be responsible, threaten regional peace and stability and kill the last hope of achieving just peace.

It stressed the necessity that Israel halts all military operations against the Palestinians and all illegal measures that undermine the two-state solution and chances for peace.

The Foreign Ministry called for a prompt move by the international community to provide protection to the “brotherly” Palestinian people, and launch a real effort to achieve a just peace that ends the occupation and fulfills an independent Palestinian state with occupied Jerusalem as its capital on the lines of June 4, 1967, which lives in peace and security alongside Israel, on the basis of the two-state solution and relevant international legitimacy resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.

Source: Jordan News Agency