Canada should pursue free trade agreements with countries in the Arab world...

The root causes of violence and extremism are often economic -- lack of jobs, housing and little hope for a prosperous future. Arab intra-regional regional free trade and the willingness of G7 nations like Canada to negotiate free trade agreements in the Arab world could provide much needed hope for a better future.

The hotbeds of extremism in the Middle East -- the slums of Cairo, the bleak suburbs of Algiers, the congested centre of Gaza City -- have one common feature; scores of unemployed, disillusioned young people with no prospects for jobs, housing or self improvement. Stymied on all fronts by repressive governments, rigid nepotism driven bureaucracies, and burdensome centrally planned and regulated business environments, these young people search for self esteem and individual identity through rediscovering their national and religious roots. Easy prey for radical clerics and others preaching an austere, violent and retrograde minority version of Islam, immersion in a subculture of hate becomes a substitute for the fruits of economic activity they have been denied.

According to recent statistics, the Arab world is one of the regions least open to international trade and globalization. Tariffs remain prohibitively high (250% on cars in Syria, 54% on clothes in Egypt), rates of foreign direct investment have fallen by 50% since 1980, and only 11 of the 22 Arab League nations are members of the WTO. Intra-regional trade is a trickle. The Maghreb states, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, have virtually closed their shared borders and trade more with France than with each other.

The long term answer to economic malaise in the Arab world, if the states of southeast Asia are any indication, is to integrate Arab economies with the rest of the world by opening up to trade and foreign investment. Four decades ago Singapore and Malaysia were experiencing much of what the Arab world is today -- religious and ideological conflict, post-colonial economic structural strains and disastrous central economic planning. After decades of reducing trade barriers and welcoming foreign investment both countries are among the most economically integrated in the world economy and enjoy high standards of living and low unemployment rates.

The comprehensive policy response to the economic challenges in the Arab world is beyond the scope of this article, but there are small economic openings that Canadian policy makers can pursue. The Maghreb countries have pursued, in fits and starts, the idea of a Maghreb economic union. Roughly modelled after the North American Free Trade Agreement, a Maghreb Union would reduce regional trade barriers and open a larger combined market to the European Union and North America. Canada, with a long positive diplomatic history in the French and Arabic speaking Maghreb states, is well placed to make a positive intervention in the formation of a Maghreb union by promising greater Canadian market access and investment in Maghreb union business and infrastructure.

Canada should also look at the precedent set by the recent signing af a U.S.-Jordan free trade agreement. Jordan's King Abdullah, long a believer in the positive societal effects of economic growth, would likely welcome a Canadian initiative to open the free trade agreement to Canada. While, in the short run, Jordan has much more than Canada to gain from such an agreement, Canada's long term economic and security interests will be better served by a prosperous and open Arab world than by the status quo.

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