Arab Common Market...
Would it be the crossing of the Arabs to the 21st Century?!
by Zakareya Neil

President Mohamad Hosni Mubarak said the birth of an Arab Common Market would be the first step towards regional economic integration that would serve the Arabs' interests, as well as the cause of comprehensive and just peace.

Mubarak, in a nation-wide radio and television broadcast marking the 45th anniversary of the 1952 July Revolution, noted that despite the radical changes that have occurred internationally and domestically, the fundamentals of the Egyptian struggle, embodied in the Revolution, remain unchanged. "We do not aim to establish a market that is closed upon itself, but seek it as a beginning for regional integration and wide-scale international cooperation, serving the Arabs' interests, as well as the interests we share with the others", Mubarak said.

"Our sure interest is to have good relations with all parties, and use these relations to serve the interests of Egypt and our Arab Nation." The Arab World is seriously heading for occupying its place on the chart of economic transformations in today's world.

Feature of the age
The feature of this age is major economic groupings. This is one strong phenomenon to leave its prints with evident marks on the last decades of the present century, regardless their fast tempo successive changes... It is noteworthy that such groupings have overcome whatever existed between them of regional barriers, including seas and oceans. They never heeded the limited regional identities which might have isolated them from giant economic worlds.

Economic lingo
Parties involved do meet and confer under the umbrella of a new citizenship i.e. the economic... Among them, they do not differ on the headquarters of their activities. It does not matter be it south, north, east or west; the place is pointless. They only care to be together; speaking the same lingo of movement, as well as development and surge to the horizons of future where figures do turn into mobile entities bringing welfare to their communities and raising their peoples living standards, in addition to pumping in more income...

It is the quest of pursuing ambitions on the chart of free trade world markets. Yes, indeed, after a long stalemate, the Arab countries are starting to act and to move with an eye on the economic revival movement which is now the motto of big blocs.

Practical steps
The foretidings came in the form of practical steps between two distinguished Arab leaders in their May 1997 Rabat meeting, as President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Hassan II of Morocco laid the foundations of the Arab Common Market. Thereupon, other Arab countries started to move in the same direction to make the ground wider for such grouping; including Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Syria, Jordan, Libya, Yemen and Lebanon. Actual measures would not thus be difficult, and there would be no more delay in making the dream come true and go ahead after a 30-year oblivion.

The pioneer
Truly, President Hosni Mubarak is the pioneer who pushed forward such National Scheme. Mubarak kept calling and pleading on every occasion, especially whenever a major economic grouping would emerge in any of the world continents regions. To dissipate any doubts concerning the Arab Common Market projects, President Mubarak made it quite clear that it will not be a rich-poor dealing where one party has special interest over the others.

Candid and sincere as he always is, President Mubarak said that in such Arab-Arab groupings all would be side by side, each up to the potentialities and capabilities of his country.

All would shoulder equal responsibilities in promoting and developing such entities which means more production and output, better quality and more exportations, to culminate in an Arab production capable of occupying a place of confidence in world markets.

Story behind it
Developing Arab Common Markets is an old story, of successive scenes and series. Arabs have bonds; individual ethnic, regional, cultural and historical rarely available for any other Nation. Even though liberated and gained freedom, the Arab countries were destined to still suffer the seeds of differences planted by the departed occupation forces, as happened in most other peoples plagued by the colonialism which controlled their natural resources and left hatred behind still sometimes fanned by secret evil powers.

To refresh our memory and remember the dates made by our peoples; the Arabs had been on the forefront of creating effective economic groupings, but regrettably they froze and let others take the lead after quoting and steeling their ideas.

In the Alexandria Protocol issued on October 7, 1944, preparing for the establishment of the Arab League, the first mention of the Arab economic cooperation was made, as it stipulated close inter-Arab cooperation in economic and financial affairs to pave the road for the inception of an Arab Economic Council; still giving way to endorsing the Arab Economic Unity agreement in March 1957.

The aim of that agreement was materializing a full-fledged economic unity between the 9 Arab countries members of the Arab League, including Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Morocco and Yemen.

Such agreement had its bottomlines and principles, for example full freedom among member-States in transportation of people, transfer of capitals, exchange of local and foreign goods and products, in residence, in employment & recruitment, engaging in economic activities, in moving about and transiting, in using means of transportation and harbours and airports, in owning property, in writing wills and bequeathing, and in all other aspects of benefit; to finally help Arab peoples merge and remove barrier or contradictions.

These same outlines inspired most other major economic groupings, for example the ASEAN. Strange enough, a glimpse at the European Economic Community (EEC) established in 1957 would also prove it was a practical expression of the items of the Arab Economic Unity Council agreement. It has got the same bases. The 30-year old agreement on the Arab Common Market also share the same principles.

Enough wasted
So, enough was wasted now that President Mubarak and King Hassan II of Morocco have installed the first brick. Mubarak's call will remain the guarantee that such economic groupings would in their development and investment-oriented chores be in isolation from political differences.

Let the Arabs catch up and make up for the past decades. Let them deserve and be worthy of the title "tigers".