JEDDAH, 9 August 2003 — Saudi Arabia will not join the World Trade Organization before 2005, Al-Watan reported yesterday quoting a WTO official.

“Documents for the accession will be signed by the beginning of 2006 at the earliest,” the official added.

But he said the Kingdom’s negotiations with the WTO were making steady progress in a generally encouraging climate.

New hopes for the Kingdom’s WTO admission had come after negotiations between Saudi officials and the US and European Union to resolve the outstanding issues outside the framework of the organization in July.

Deputy Commerce Minister Fawaz Al-Alami, who is chairman of the Saudi negotiating team, refused to comment on the WTO statement. “I don’t have any information in this respect,” the Arabic daily quoted Al-Alami as saying.

The WTO official said the Kingdom had yet to hold between three to six meetings with the working group, with a gap of three to four months between them. He expressed his hope that the number of meetings could be limited to four if there was progress in the negotiations.

He said progress in solving outstanding issues with the WTO was needed, as was the finalization of trade accords with WTO member countries, especially major trading partners.

The Kingdom has so far signed agreements with 10 major trading partners including Japan, Australia, Pakistan, Canada, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina.

But similar accords with the US and European countries are necessary to ensure its seat on the WTO.

In his report, Canadian John Wicks, former chairman of the WTO working group, affirmed that the Kingdom made progress in three areas: Market access, customs regulations and financial markets.

Wicks resigned his position last year and Pakistani Munir Akram is now handling the Kingdom’s file.

During talks in July, the two sides agreed on submitting the Kingdom’s application this year to the working group is assigned to discuss membership applications.

The group, comprising 52 countries, will hold its next meeting in October. But the official dismissed the possibility of taking up the Kingdom’s application during the session as it would be busy discussing Russia application.

“Given the situation, the group will hold a special session for the Kingdom early next year,” the official said, adding that the meeting would look into new information and documents from the Kingdom.