UAE won't pay political price for US trade deal

DUBAI, June 3: The United Arab Emirates is not willing to make any political concessions to secure a free trade agreement with the United States, the country's prime minister told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper on Saturday.

Asked what price the UAE would pay to sign the deal with Washington, given the U.S. concerns over its labour laws, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum was quoted as saying: ''The UAE will not pay a political price for any trade agreement with the United States or any other country.'' Sheikh Mohammed, who is also the ruler of the booming trade emirate of Dubai, did not elaborate or give further details.

The United States is pressing the UAE to apply international standards to its workforce, made up mostly of low wage expatriate labour.

In March, U.S.-based watchdog Human Rights Watch urged Washington not to sign a deal until the Gulf state ended what it described as mistreatment of the foreign workers.

Last month, the UAE said it hoped to clinch the deal this year and expected postponed talks to resume in the months ahead.

The fifth round of trade talks had been scheduled for March, but were suddenly called off after a political storm in the United States forced state-owned Dubai Ports World to relinquish control of terminals at six major U.S. ports.

Sheikh Mohammed told the London-based daily the UAE was in the process of reviewing its laws to prepare for membership in the World Trade Organisation and other agreements.

''Each law that requires amendment will be amended ... laws dealing with financial markets need to be developed as well as the labour law and press and publishing law.

''Laws dealing with trade must be amended in line with the UAE's membership in the WTO but according to a timetable which protects the interests of the nation and its people.

Trade between the United States and the UAE amounted to billion in 2005, making it the third-largest U.S. trading partner in the Middle East behind Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The proposed deal is part of a broader U.S. effort to craft a regional free-trade zone in the Middle East by 2013.

Labour rights were also a stumbling block in Washington's free trade talks with Qatar, with Doha freezing negotiations in April and saying the United States needed to be more flexible.

Commenting on the fast-paced growth of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed dismissed analysts' fears of a bubble about to burst.

''If we had listened to talk of the bubble we would never have done anything ... if you ask those who are speaking of the bubble what they mean, you would get a 'bubble response' that has no relation to economics or development or science or reality,'' he said.

Property prices have approximately doubled in the past three years as the wealthy Dubai emirate transformed itself into the region's trade and tourism hub.

REUTERS