Gulf states to make further progress on customs union
Gulf, Economics, 8/26/1998

The economic and financial cooperation committee in the Gulf cooperation council (GCC) states, which groups ministers of finance and economy, holds its 48th extraordinary meeting in Jeddah Thursday, ahead of a joint meeting with the GCC foreign ministers.

GCC secretary general for economic affairs Abdullah al-Khulaifi said in a statement issued by the secretariat general that the finance ministers would discuss what has already been achieved so far in the field of establishing a customs union among the GCC countries.

Al-Khulaifi added that the ministers would also refer the outcomes of their talks to the foreign ministers during the joint meeting slated for Friday.

He said the two meetings would fall within the framework of the assignment of the GCC's supreme council of leaders that was adopted during the 18th summit meeting in Kuwait last December to follow up on the execution of the unification of the GCC customs tariffs towards foreign countries.

The finance ministers assigned the preformed technical committee the task of goods classification for the sake of reaching a unified customs tariff.

Al-Khulaifi said the finance ministers would review what has already been reached by the technical committee that was formed by the GCC's customs and finance officials during the months of last July and August.

The technical committee has so far classified 1,126 out of 1,288 previously unclassified commodities, as disputes among the members states center around the specification of the percentage of customs tariffs on these commodities.

The finance ministers will be expected to finalize the percentage of customs tariffs on primary and other commodities before the next summit in December, and to propose the initiation of unified customs tariffs and refer it to the GCC.

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