On 19 January 2006, in Washington, the Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Sultanate of Oman on the Establishment of a Free Trade Area was signed. The signatories were U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman and Oman’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Maqbool bin Ali Sultan. According to USTR, the ceremony took place at the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution building, not at the White House. Languages: English and Arabic, in duplicate; in the event of a discrepancy the English text prevails. Talks notified to Congress on 15 November 2004 were concluded in October 2005.

Chapter 1 establishes the free trade area and defines terms. Chapter 2 (market access) provides for the elimination of customs duties and other barriers to goods; USTR’s signing-day release: on the first day of application, 100 percent of industrial and consumer products and 87 percent of agricultural tariff lines, without a tariff-line list here. Later chapters cover origin, customs, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers, safeguards and government procurement, with coverage annexes.

Chapter 10: investment, with non-conforming measures in Annexes I and II. Chapter 11: cross-border trade in services. Chapter 12: financial services. Chapters 13–15: telecommunications, electronic commerce and intellectual property, with side letters (including public health). This is not a tariff or licensing handbook.

Chapter 16: labor, with a cooperation mechanism in Annex 16-A. Chapter 17: environment. Chapter 18: transparency. Chapter 19: administration of the Agreement. Chapter 20: dispute settlement. Chapter 21: exceptions. The Annexes form an integral part, under Article 22.1.

Article 22.2: written amendments, after domestic approval procedures, on a date the Parties agree. Article 22.5(1): the Agreement enters into force 60 days after the Parties exchange written notifications that they have completed their applicable legal requirements and procedures, or on such other date as they may agree. They chose 1 January 2009. Article 22.5(2): either Party may terminate on 180 days’ written notice. Article 22.4: other countries may accede on agreed terms, with the Parties’ consent.

Congress enacted the United States–Oman Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (Public Law 109-283); President George W. Bush signed it on 26 September 2006. The proclamation of 29 December 2008 set application for 1 January 2009. It is the fifth such U.S. agreement in the Middle East, within the administration’s announced MEFTA strategy, not treated here as a later programme.

Memorial Continental Hall, the DAR headquarters in Washington, the building in which USTR places the ceremony. Wikimedia Commons, free licence.

For context: Oman–United States Free Trade Agreement. The text: Agreement on the Establishment of a Free Trade Area, Chapter 22 Final Provisions.