Oman hopes its free trade pact with the United States to provide it with a market for new petrochemical and aluminium exports, helping the Gulf Arab state diversify its energy-dependent economy, a government official said on Friday.
The US House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly approved the free trade pact to strengthen trade and investment ties with the non-Opec oil and natural gas producer.
"The United States is expected to be a market for the industries coming up in Sohar," Ahmed al-Dheeb, under-secretary at Oman's Ministry of Commerce and Industry, told Reuters. Oman is investing more than $12 billion in projects in the industrial city of Sohar, including an aromatics complex, a polypropylene plant, methanol and fertiliser projects and an aluminium smelter.
Dheeb said the agreement would also encourage American investments in the sultanate, particularly in the manufacturing sector. The United States is Oman's sixth largest trading partner and two-way trade between was worth about $1 billion in 2005.
According to the Central Bank of Oman, US exports to the sultanate stood at $538.7 million in 2005. The bank did not provide 2005 figures for Omani exports to the United States, which stood at $327.2 million in 2004.