Saudi Arabia for joining WTO quickly

The Saudi minister of finance Ibrahim al-Assaf has expressed his hope in his country's rapid joining of the World Trade Organization WTO.

The Saudi minister told journalists in a meeting between American and Saudi officials "we are committed at all levels of our government to join the WTO as soon as possible." The Saudi minister gave no signals on the timetable for the negotiations to joining the WTO but he admitted that Saudi Arabia still has to do many things regarding its trade relations with other states, members of the multilateral WTO.

The Saudi minister added: "We have reduced our customs tariff considerably from 12% to 5%, noting that certain partners want us to reduce these fees into Zero." He hoped that these differences will be eliminated.

Worthy mentioning that Saudi Arabia which is the largest oil producer in the world is the only country among the Arab 6- member Gulf states which has not yet joined the WTO. Riyadh applied for joining the WTO in 1996.