GCC to sign FTA with European countries

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GCC Secretary-General, H E Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al Attiyah, told reporters yesterday that on June 22, a joint free trade deal with Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein was slated to be concluded.

He, however, maintained that formally GCC-EU free trade talks had come to a halt but discussions were going on at a certain level.

The Presidency of the EU and the Secretariat-General of the Gulf states are in touch with each other over the issue. “We are still awaiting the proposals the EU side has promised to submit. We don’t know when the proposals will be submitted,” Al Attiyah said on the sidelines of the Qatar Economic Summit here.

He clarified that after the Gulf states inked a free trade agreement with Singapore in Doha, they were pressing ahead with a similar deal with the four above European nations which are not EU members.

The deal is to be signed in Oslo on June 22 given that Norway is part of this group of four. “I will be signing the agreement on behalf of the GCC with the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs who is the current Chairman of the GCC Ministerial Council,” said Al Attiyah. The GCC will this year be also holding free trade negotiations with Australia and New Zealand. “We are actually quite close to concluding the deal with Australia,” the Secretary-General said.

About the regional common currency, he said Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain were pressing ahead with the plan.

Bahrain has already ratified it while Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are in the process. On June 7 and 8, foreign ministers are holding their routine meeting and on the sidelines of the event, ministers from the four countries they will sign the common currency agreement.

To recall, the UAE recently announced it was backing out of the common currency pact, while Oman had earlier pulled itself out.

 

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