US-Oman bilateral trade to exceed pre-Covid levels

Muscat: The annual US-Oman trade is expected to exceed pre-Covid levels, according to the US Embassy in Muscat.

As per the US-Oman Free Trade Agreement (FTA), bilateral trade between the two countries was $2.9 billion as of November 2021, with a $353 million surplus for the Sultanate, compared to $1.9 billion for the entire 2020.

Bilateral trade between the United States and the Sultanate of Oman touched $2.3 billion in September 2021 as both sides celebrated 12 years of signing the Free Trade Agreement.

In January 2021, the US imported over $200mn worth of Omani products, more than twice the monthly average witnessed over the past 15 years“The figures indicate that despite the challenges faced by the business and industry sector during the pandemic, Omani industries were able to achieve good results and benefit from the agreement to increase Omani exports to the United States of America,” the Ministry of Commerce and Investment Promotion (MOCIIP).

According to National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), non-oil exports from the Sultanate of Oman increased by 38.1 percent in the first six months of 2021, compared to the same period in 2020.

“The Free Trade Agreement is one of the pillars of the burgeoning economic partnership between, providing opportunities to ensure the success and growth of businesses large and small in the two countries,” according to the embassy.

The United States entered into a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the Sultanate Oman on January 1, 2009, which helped eliminate most tariff and non-tariff barriers, expedite the movement of goods and the provision of services, strengthen protections for investors (including allowing them to fully own a business without a local partner), safeguarding intellectual property rights, labor, and environmental standards, and dispute settlement procedures to improve the regulatory climate for bilateral trade and investment.

Under the FTA, 100 percent of bilateral trade in industrial and consumer products became duty-free immediately upon entry with the agreement.

Oman and the United States also provide each other immediate duty-free access on virtually all products in their tariff schedules and will phase out tariffs on the remaining handful of products within ten years.