The Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain on the Establishment of a Free Trade Area was signed at Washington on 14 September 2004, in duplicate, in English and Arabic, each text equally authentic. The plenipotentiaries were Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick and Abdulla Hassan Saif, Minister of Finance and National Economy. The place was the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. It is not the 1999 bilateral investment treaty, which the preamble only mentions.

Article 1.1 establishes the free trade area, consistent with Article XXIV of GATT 1994 and Article V of GATS. Article 1.2 reaffirms existing rights and obligations, including the WTO Agreement, and does not derogate from any more favourable treatment already due. The preamble ties liberalisation to transparency, anti-bribery, intellectual property, workers’ rights and the environment, without displacing the WTO.

The 21 chapters cover, at high level, market access in goods, textiles, origin, customs, sanitary measures, technical barriers, safeguards, government procurement, cross-border services, investment, financial services, telecommunications, electronic commerce, intellectual property, labour, environment, transparency, administration, dispute settlement, exceptions and final provisions. The annexes form an integral part of the agreement under Article 21.1. We do not reproduce tariff lists, product-specific origin rules or staging schedules.

Article 21.2: written amendments after domestic procedures, on a date the Parties agree. Article 21.3: consultations if an incorporated WTO provision is amended. Article 21.4: other countries may join on agreed terms; the agreement does not apply between a Party and a newcomer if one of them withholds consent. Article 21.5: entry into force 60 days after an exchange of notes certifying that internal procedures are complete, or on another agreed date — 11 January 2006; termination on 180 days’ written notice.

Negotiations were announced on 21 May 2003 on the TIFA track, launched in Manama on 26 January 2004 and closed in May; the President notified Congress on 15 June. It is the first United States free-trade agreement with a Gulf partner. The text consulted is Chapter 21 of the USTR final text, aligned with the UNCTAD reprint of the instrument.

Cover: the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, the signing venue; we do not claim the hall. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

Sources consulted: Bahrain–United States Free Trade Agreement; USTR Bahrain FTA Chapter 21 Final Provisions.