WASHINGTON: With President Barack Obama’s backing, US lawmakers on Wednesday unveiled legislation aimed at using trade-spurred jobs growth as an antidote to Islamist extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The bill would give goods from certain restive parts of those countries duty-free access to the US market in a bid to promote legitimate economic activity where poverty fuels terrorist recruitment and the illegal drug trade.
“Military force alone will not solve the problem” of quenching Islamist extremist forces along the strife-torn countries’ common border, said Democratic Representative Chris Van Hollen, a leading backer.
Obama has “fully embraced” the measure, which has been introduced in the Senate and will soon be in the House of Representatives, said Van Hollen, who was born to a US diplomat in Karachi, Pakistan.
At the same press conference, Ambassadors Husain Haqqani of Pakistan and Said Jawad of Afghanistan said the bill, which would create “Reconstruction Opportunity Zones,” would create jobs for young people who might otherwise join Islamist extremists.
“The young people of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s tribal areas need to be given a choice other than employment by the Taliban,” said Haqqani, who estimated the zones would create some 30,000 jobs in Pakistan within the first three years, chiefly thanks to textile exports to the United States.
“Fighting terrorism and extremism is not just (using military force), it’s providing hope, jobs,” Jawad told reporters.
US special envoy Richard Holbrooke’s deputy, Paul Jones, said the Obama administration backed the goals of the legislation and would help as needed to resolve the differences between the Senate and House versions.
