JEDDAH, 3 March 2004 — Saudi Arabia will sign a landmark trade agreement with Asian economic giant China today as part of Riyadh’s nine-year-long bid to join the World Trade Organization.
Commerce and Industry Minister Dr. Hashem Yamani will sign the deal in Riyadh with the Chinese assistant trade minister, Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic daily reported yesterday.
Saudi Arabia has so far signed bilateral agreements with 30 countries and observers expect the Kingdom would be able to join the organization as early as the middle of this year. Last month the Kingdom signed deals with Canada, Switzerland, Norway, Thailand, Ecuador, Cuba, Sri Lanka, Poland and India.
Negotiations with just four countries now remain to be finalized. They are Panama, Indonesia, the Philippines and the US.
Fawaz Al-Alamy, deputy minister of commerce and industry for technical affairs, said he expected new WTO deals within a couple of weeks. He also anticipated there would be just one more session of negotiations with the United States.
The deal with Beijing reflects the growing Saudi-Chinese relations. In January, Saudi Arabia awarded China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) a contract for the exploration and production of natural gas in a 40,000 sq. km area in the Rub Al-Khali or Empty Quarter.
A new company, 80 percent owned by Sinopec and 20 percent by state-owned oil and gas giant Saudi Aramco, has been set up for the project.
Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali Al-Naimi, who held talks in Beijing yesterday with top Chinese officials including Sinopec’s chairman, highlighted the “distinguished relations” between the two countries.
He said his current visit was aimed at exploring prospects of increasing Saudi oil exports to China. Saudi Arabia currently supplies more than 300,000 barrels daily to China.
“There is an agreement to establish an oil refinery in Fujian Province to refine Saudi oil and distribute and market oil products within and outside China,” the minister said.
Saudi Aramco will participate in the establishment of the refinery along with Chinese and international companies, the Saudi Press Agency quoted Naimi as saying.
Naimi said he also discussed with Chinese officials prospects of setting up joint ventures in the Kingdom’s vast mineral sector.
