Major progress has been made in talks over the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States, the Khaleej Times reported on Thursday.

The UAE-US Joint Council for Trade and Investment held the second round of talks in Washington on Wednesday to carry forward the March trade-and-investment-framework agreement initiatives to accelerate FTA negotiations, the English-language daily said, quoting a statement issued by the UAE Ministry of Finance and Industry.

Significant progress was made in areas identified during the inaugural meeting of the council held in April 2004. The UAE delegation was convinced that the Wednesday talks ended on a positive note.

The discussions concentrated on such topics as organizing labor in the two countries and fostering the intellectual property rights.

During the talks, the UAE's decision to sign the Information Technology Agreement was hailed as a step forward and its customs evaluation procedures singled out as an area where progress could be made.

Al Bustani, who headed the UAE delegation, was quoted as confirming that most of technical hurdles to the FTA had been removed, paving the way for negotiations to start in the near future.

The two countries signed the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) in Washington on March 15, 2004, under which a joint council was established to examine ways to expand bilateral trade and investment relationship.

The TIFA put the two countries in good standing to achieve theirgoal of seeing a Middle East Free Trade Area established by 2013.

Trade volume between the two countries stood at 4.6 billion US dollars in 2003, with the United States exporting goods worth 3.5 billion dollars and the UAE exporting commodities worth 1.1 billiondollars.

Source: Xinhua