Free trade talks between the United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) should resume at the end of April, the U.S. Trade Representative's office and UAE Economy Minister Sheikha Lubna al-Qassimi said Monday. "We are targeting end of April, probably, for the next round," Sheikha Lubna said, adding that working groups had held talks as recently as last week. Both sides have been negotiating a free trade deal since March 2005 and had originally been scheduled to hold their fifth round of talks last week. However, the talks were postponed earlier this month following the collapse of a deal for a state-owned Dubai company to manage six major U.S. seaport terminals. Sheikha Lubna said the delay in the talks was "absolutely not" related to the Dubai Ports World deal, which fell apart after many U.S. lawmakers raised strong security concerns. "Both sides are committed to working through the complex issues in FTA (free trade agreement) negotiations with an eye toward completing work by the middle of this year," said U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman's spokeswoman, Neena Moorjani. Trade between the United States and the UAE was $10 billion in 2005, making the UAE the third-largest U.S. trading partner in the Middle East behind Israel and Saudi Arabia.
