The 10-year-old US-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has been extended temporarily since the programme was not initiated until August 2006, and therefore the 10-year programme should be set to expire on July 31, 2016 and not December 31, 2015. Once the FTA terminates, all trade under the Bahrain FTA must adhere to the yarn forward rule i.e. Bahrain-based textile exporters will no longer be able to export their products to the USA duty-free, unless they can prove that all the constituent parts ‘from the yarn to the fabric to the thread’ are made by either the USA or Bahrain.
