Gulf states rules out Washington from collective trade agreements
Gulf-USA, Economics, 6/6/2005

The Kuwaiti foreign minister Sheikh Muhammad Salem al-Sabah said that the Gulf Cooperation Council GCC states decided to rule out the USA from its collective trade agreements. But he explained in a seminar held in Kuwait that the GCC member states permitted Washington to convene bilateral trade agreement for free exchange.

Washington signed an agreement on free trade with Bahrain and is currently making negotiations with the United Arab Emirates and Oman and is intending to negotiate with Qatar and Kuwait.

The GCC secretary General Abdul Rahman al-Ateyah indicated in May that the GCC member states settled their differences over convening bilateral agreements for free exchange with Washington, but Riyadh expressed reservations.

It seemed that Saudi Arabia, which used to strongly oppose bilateral agreements on the ground that this initiative obstructs economic agreement among the 6 GCC member states, had changed its position following the recent visit of the Saudi crown prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz to the USA in April.

For his part, the American ambassador to Kuwait Richard Lebaron said in the seminar that the Guf states need to deal with intellectual property and labor laws issues in order to move towards an agreement for the free trade with the USA.

He added that the first issue is to ensure better protection for intellectual property which should be materialized through introducing appropriate laws to protect intellectual property, patents and trade marks.

Washington also urged Oman and the UAE to reform its labor laws.

In 2003 the GCC member states launched a customs union. It intends to establish a common market in 2007 and a monetary union by the fall of 2010.

Previous Stories:
  Washington announces the beginning of trade negotiations with UAE, Oman   (2/18/2005)
  Qatar calls for cooperation that repulses dangers; NATO announces its Arab role in June   (4/20/2004)
  Gulf citizens loose $ 97 billion in US market because of dollar decline   (7/18/2002)
  US urges Gulf states to undertake economic reforms, and to approach Israel   (10/18/1999)

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