Jordan finds itself at a precarious strategic position. The Hashemite Kingdom is located at the heart of a degenerating region and has absorbed millions of refugees despite a floundering economy. This state of affairs has led Jordan to increase economic cooperation with Israel, as it attempts to offset some of these challenges. However, 23 years after Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel, the Jordanian public is still not completely comfortable with increasing economic cooperation with its western neighbor.
The value of increased economic cooperation between Jordan and Israel should be a fairly easy argument to make to the Jordanian public, as Israel has a strong economy that could help lift Jordan out of its current economic crisis and help improve the kingdom’s standard of living. In fact, Jordanian-Israeli economic cooperation has already borne fruit, in 1996, when Israel and Jordan, together with the U.S., signed the Qualifying Industrial Zones agreement, which enabled Jordan to export duty-free products to the U.S. The deal had a tremendous impact on Jordan’s economy. For example, in 1997, Jordan’s total exports totaled less than $5 million worth of goods, but as a result of the deal, that number ballooned to $164 million by 2001. Additionally, Jordanian factories that were involved in the deal ended up creating 30,000 jobs.
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