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President Bush's call for free trade between the United States and the Middle East shows farsightedness and unparalleled (if unsupported) optimism. As even the president must acknowledge, however, international trade cannot be free when there is little domestic freedom and the specter of war is never far away.

Bush is correct that free trade promotes prosperity, which discourages conflict. But it is also true that robust, job-creating trade requires a measure of peace and stability from the start. The trade the president has in mind, in other words, is more the product of peace than its cause.
 
President Bush admits that free trade throughout the Middle East will be years in coming. Israeli and Palestinian leaders are in no hurry to end their conflict. Iran, Syria and Libya are on the list of nations that sponsor terrorism and are punished with trade sanctions, not rewarded with tariff concessions. That situation cannot be reversed until the citizens of those countries effect their own regime change.
 
Many Arab nations have state-controlled economies. Some, such as Saudi Arabia, resemble family-owned and -operated businesses. Free trade will require market economies and transparent governments, which would constitute a transformation for most countries of the region.

Aside from the shortage of freedom and democracy in most of the Middle East, the region suffers from a dearth of regional trade. In most parts of the world, trade among neighbors accounts for 25 % or more of all commerce.

In the Middle East, however, the figure is closer to 5%. 

The case of Jordan, however, proves that free trade can work in the Middle East. An earlier trade agreement with Jordan has created thousands of jobs in that country and reinforced Jordan's longstanding and mutually beneficial ties with the United States.

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''On the Waterfront – Still''

John Fund, Wall Street Journal, 09/17/06