3:30 P.M. EST 
MODERATOR: I think we'll get started. Thank you, Assistant Secretary Bohigian for coming today and talking about your travel to the region. I'll let you -- I think if you open a little bit with what you're going to be doing out there, and then we'll open it up to Q and A.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: Great. Well, thank you all for coming today. Next week I'll be taking a trip to the Middle East which will include U.A.E., Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Our role at the Department of Commerce is to ensure that our bilateral trade ties are as strong as they can be and that includes working on market access barriers.
The one key theme of this trip will also be ensuring that countries, policy makers and businessmen in the Middle East understand the importance that we place on a relationship from an investment standpoint as well. Many of our companies have enjoyed success throughout the region with operations in those countries, and we hope that that relationship extends back to the United States through foreign direct investment.
So I'll be ensuring that people understand the role of foreign direct investment in the United States is broader than the committee on foreign investment in the United States and that things that are outside of national security are also an important element of our trade and investment relationship.
In each one of the countries, I'll be talking about various issues. In the U.A.E, which is our 19th largest trading partner, I'll be discussing some of the unresolved issues in our free trade agreement negotiations which we hope to restart as soon as U.A.E. is ready to do that. There are some market access issues, in particular in intellectual property rights, that I'll be discussing there as well.
In Bahrain, I'll be discussing the FTA implementation. It's, to date, been a success but we can continue to build upon that success by talking about ways that companies and policy makers can take advantage of that.
In Qatar, I'll be talking about market access issues, again like intellectual property rights and government procurement but also more broadly the role that transparency can play in an economy and foreign ownership and the ability for the business climate to be improved by some of the microeconomic changes that have taken place in other countries that have been so successful.
In Saudi Arabia, I will be participating in the U.S.-Saudi business dialogue roundtable and an energy forum. So those will be two events, one of which I participated in here just a few weeks ago with a Saudi business roundtable group, and continuing that discussion to better understand how we can strengthen the ties between our countries both in the trade and investment relationship as well as looking for the Saudi Government to continue to step up into its WTO commitments.
So really that's an overview of the trip. Again, primarily looking to work with these countries to improve their microeconomic environment in many cases, but also looking to ensure that people there understand that the U.S. is open for trade and open for foreign direct investment. So with that I welcome your questions. And thank you again for being here.
MODERATOR: Go ahead, Joyce.
QUESTION: Yes.
MODERATOR: Yeah, pull the mike, that would be helpful.
QUESTION: Joyce Karam with Al Hayat, Arabic Daily. Who will you be meeting specifically in Saudi Arabia? And you know you talked about stepping up WTO commitments. If you can, you know, give us more details on that.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: Sure. Saudi Arabia's my last stop on the trip. So we're still setting up various meetings there. We're hoping to meet with business leaders, government leaders. I will be attending the energy forum, as I mentioned earlier, and many of the business roundtable participants who I had a chance to meet with last time that include business leaders from throughout the country. I feel like on the WTO commitments, it's an important step for Saudi Arabia to be able to show the world with its recent accession it's continuing to make commitments, such as in financial services that are important to not only the financial services sector but more broadly help to create a more entrepreneurial climate.
Another key theme of the trip in many respects is the importance of diversification, and that's a theme that I'll be talking about in Saudi Arabia. Obviously, energy has been one of the key components of many of these economies, and in talking with the Saudis the role of entrepreneurship and the role of innovation that their society needs to take in order to not only meet its WTO commitments, but more importantly provide a better quality of life for its people in the years ahead is going to be something I'm going that I'll be focusing on with those government and business leaders.
QUESTION: Yeah, my name is Saad [Mohammad] from Kuwait News Agency. My question is --
MODERATOR: Sorry, we'll have upgrades on the mikes.
QUESTION: -- as you know that Qatar and the U.A.E. are in the TIFA talks, negotiations, and I think Kuwait and Yemen as well. Is the United States basically satisfied with the measures that have been taken by these countries on property rights issues?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: Well, intellectual property rights issues are important not only from a legal standpoint but also from an enforcement standpoint as well as a cultural standpoint. It's -- around the world, people need to focus on ensuring that their culture is one that rewards innovation, that rewards building businesses that are based on knowledge such as movies, music, but also importantly public health such as pharmaceuticals and auto parts, and more broadly electronic and mechanical machinery. Because when it's a public safety issue, regardless of whether you're producing that good or not, it's really in everyone's interest to ensure that people are getting counterfeit goods.
The President and all of us in the Administration remain committed to seeing a Middle East free trade agreement by 2013. So when you talk about where we are in TIFA negotiations with various countries, I point to the larger goal over the next seven years of accomplishing a free trade agreement throughout the region, which is of strategic and economic importance to everyone to strengthen their ties with one another.
QUESTION: [Joyce Karam, Al Hayat] There is some concerns now that, you know, the Democrats have come to control the Congress, that they will start hearings on energy policy and, you know, reconsider some maybe businesses that U.S. companies are having in Iraq and in the Gulf. I mean how -- what's your take on this issue? And is there a message, you know, you can convey maybe to the businesses in the Gulf or governments there that, you know, that the situation won't be -- I mean hugely affected on mainly energy policy?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: Well, on energy policy, the President has announced the Advanced Energy Initiative, which is an important cornerstone of providing the United States citizens and citizens around the world with affordable, reliable, secure supplies of energy. And whether those are fossil fuels or some of the renewables or other sources of energy is something the President remains committed to. As the President said yesterday, he is committed to working with the new Congress, and I think we've got a chance to really find common ground on many of these issues such as energy going forward.
Most importantly from the economic perspective that you mentioned is the ability for Congress and the President together to show leadership as Congressman Rangel has talked about, being able to work forward in the free trade area, because we've tried protectionism in the past in the United States. During our depression we raised tariffs and that lengthened and deepened the depression. As we've seen in the post war period, the United States has been the most open and most rapidly growing major economy in the world and the most open economy in the world, and those two are not unrelated.
The ability for economies to open themselves to working with the world gives them the opportunity to grow. And while that's not always painless growth, it is an opportunity, I think, many Democrats and Republicans alike share their vision for the future of working more closely with the world.
QUESTION: Mahmoud Hamalawy with Al Jazeera Television in Washington. In regards to Qatar, what are your specific concerns when it comes to transparency or openness?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: Well, obviously, two of the major areas of the Qatari economy have been energy and now diversifying into fertilizer and other sectors. And the ability for both from the corporate governance side to have more participation from informed board members and informed shareholders is an important element again of the value that we've seen around the world and when it comes to companies. But also within governments it's important to focus on the openness and communicating with the people to ensure that the process that are taking place in civic governance are just as transparent as they are in the corporate realm.
QUESTION: My name is Hany El-Konayyesi. I work for Abu Dhabi TV. I know you will be touring the region and visiting the United Arab Emirates as part of this visit, this tour. I have a couple of well -- one question with two main points. First of all, I'd like to ask you what specific issues you are going to discuss on your visit to the United Arab Emirates. And part two is what are the obstacles remaining in the face finding a free trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: Well, the major issues that I'll be discussing in the U.A.E. really include the openness to invest here in the United States. Our economy, because of foreign direct investment, employs over 5 million Americans, generally in higher paying jobs than average. And the ability for companies in the U.A.E, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and around the world to be able to participate in working with Americans to create great products and create great service is something that will be the key message there.
When it comes to the free trade agreement, the key issue is how soon U.A.E. is willing to restart the negotiations. We welcome their negotiation. At this point, obviously, things are not moving as quickly as we'd like, and the key element is timing. Our trade promotion authority expires on June 30th of next year. And in order to move these deals through Congress, we need to start moving as soon as possible. So it's really one of timing. And I'll leave the negotiations to the trade representative's office.
QUESTION: May I follow up on this? I -- what exactly the main problem in getting the free trade agreement going?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: Without any details in the negotiation, I would say the investment chapter in my mind looms large in our negotiations. And so solving the investment chapter with U.A.E.'s openness to investment is probably the key block that we've had in the negotiations. But it's something, again, that the details of that will need to be worked out between the trade representative's office and their counterparts in the U.A.E.
QUESTION: Samir Nader with Radio Sawa. What's your reaction to Dubai's markets, they applied to the Islamic law, the stock market?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: I'm not familiar with that?
QUESTION: I believe there's an article in the Financial Times.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: I have not read that today. I apologize. I've been running around on lots of other regions too.
QUESTION: What's the timing now for your trip have anything to do with the timing after the elections you're going?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: The timing of my trip is based on the fact that I've been in office as Assistant Secretary in the International Trade Administration for the less than a year. It's increasingly -- there's increasing awareness throughout the federal government and throughout the United States citizenship about how important foreign direct investment is. And I really wanted the opportunity to go to the region and talk about the importance of foreign direct investment throughout my time here. Because I think when you look at our trading relationships, not just in this region but around the world, they're significant. But the investment relationship truly helps people see the benefits of trade on the ground. So when Honda is opening a new factory in the United States and employing American workers, that's important. And when our companies are investing around the world, they're some of the most amazing corporate citizens out there not only providing jobs for people but sustainable development as well as charitable services around the world. So really the timing of the trip is based on having a global mandate and trying to get to the region as soon as I could to talk about how important it is to keep the lanes of investment open as well as trade.
QUESTION: How close is Saudi Arabia from, you know, starting trade talks or negotiations?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: From what I understand, Ambassador Schwab was here earlier today. So she'd be the right person to ask that question. I would just say again the President, Ambassador Schwab, Secretary Gutierrez remain committed to a Middle East free trade agreement by 2013. It will incorporate Saudi Arabia. And the importance of continuing down the past of WTO accession and WTO commitments is what I'll be focusing on this trip rather than timing of an individual FTA.
QUESTION: How is FTA going in Bahrain so far?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: I think Bahrain's a real success story. I think they've had the opportunity to be a leader in the region and we've been able to broaden our strong strategic relationship into more of an economic realm. So trade has picked up, and I think investment both ways should hopefully be strengthened by this as well.
QUESTION: How about Jordan free trade agreement, is there any difficult problems? I read somewhere that there was some complaints about certain regulations or something with Jordan.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: Well, more broadly speaking than Jordan, more trade generally brings more opportunity as well as challenges. So in many cases, increased trade leads to companies doing business in a market for a first time under a free trade agreement. And so the challenges that are faced under any free trade agreement sometimes seem as though they pick up after a free trade agreement. But for specifics on the Jordan free trade agreement, I don't have that right now.
QUESTION: Are you going to discuss any -- what's the word -- you know after the Dubai ports deal collapsed, are we going to see more, you know, perhaps more energy bills on that track? I mean, of course, after negotiations with the Congress. Is that going to be in the discussions?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: Well, again, one of my key messages in the region is going to be that the United States is the best place to invest in the world, and we've got the best workers in the world. And more broadly speaking than just the committee on foreign investment in the United States' process, there is a world of opportunity to -- for people to invest here in the United States.
QUESTION: But does that include also in that thing a new (inaudible) ports?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: I would leave that judgment to when a deal is actually announced? It's a hypothetical question. But we certainly look at every deal as opportunity to expand trade and investment between the United States and the host country.
QUESTION: I'm Munir Mawari from Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily newspaper. I would like to ask you about we see in the region some activists and Islamic group and some (inaudible) group call for to boycott American products. Did you notice any effects on the trade or on that?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: I noticed the recent Zogby poll that talked about attitudes in the region toward America and American businesses, and one of the key findings from that poll was how much admiration there is for the entrepreneurship and the business culture in America. So people admire the success that we've had in America when it comes to business. And I'll be focusing on trying to build upon our strong relations. Because when trade and investment takes place, businesses are talking to one another. And when they do deals, it's a voluntary exchange that each side gains something from that transaction, and that's true in a consumer setting as well. So when people buy products or do business deals, they're really building a relationship, and that relationship helps with greater understanding, and that greater understanding I think is something that will be one of the key messages on my trip.
QUESTION: Is the United States so far satisfied with the economic openness and privatization taking place in the Gulf states?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: I think there's more work to be done on economic openness and privatization. The United States, again being the most open economy in the world along with out countries throughout the world who have shown great success as they open their economy and as they privatize businesses. And it's important to note on privatization that it's not merely floating shares on an exchange that creates the privatization, although that's an important step, it's really the corporate governance and the openness that we talked about earlier to have real accountability throughout the corporate culture to shareholders and to board members and so that management is focused on an economic bottom line rather than sometimes having other bottom lines that relate more to government programs than getting business done. So every economy around the world benefits from transparency. Every company and shareholders and employees alike can benefit from privatization as well.
QUESTION: Are you going to discuss these countries' bilateral business relations -- economic relations with Iran?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: No.
MODERATOR: Anything else? Thank you very much.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOHIGIAN: Thank you very much. I appreciate your time.
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