AMMAN — 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, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.
اضافة اعلان
Tabbaa said in a
statement that the 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 said, 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, said Tabbaa, its policies have been geared
toward removing trade restrictions and increasing national exports.
Jordan’s “diverse”
service sector contributed to the country’s service trade balance posting a
surplus of about $2.2 billion from 2016 to 2019, Tabbaa noted.
Exports of
services include those related to commerce, tourism, travel, transportation,
construction, finance, information technology, and insurance. The largest
portion of exports, which totaled $2.3 billion in 2020, was of trade services.
As a result of the
pandemic, Jordan’s service sector trade balance recorded a $500 million deficit
in 2020, $2.5 billion in exports and $3 billion in imports, while in 2019, the
figures stood at $8 billion in exports and $4.8 billion in imports, Tabbaa
added.
45.5%
increase in national exports in first half of 2022 compared to same period of 2021
According to the
most recent International Trade Centre data, service sector trade exchange fell
by $7.3 billion in 2020, with Jordanian exports falling by $5.5 billion and
imports dropping by $1.8 billion.
The fertilizers industry
alone has unrealized export potential worth $792 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.
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