SHARJAH, 11 January 2005 — Trade among the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) doubled in 12 years from $7.53 billion in 1990 to $15.14 billion in 2002, according to figures released by the GCC general secretariat.
However, the figure represented less than eight percent of all trade involving the GCC countries, independent estimates show. The GCC secretariat figures also showed that the number of joint economic projects undertaken by GCC members in 2003 was 319, with an investment outlay of $4.26 billion.
The GCC secretariat said the number of trade licenses granted to GCC nationals to facilitate economic activities in other member states reached 10,764 in 2003, including 7,384 in the UAE. In 2003, the total capital of public shareholding companies in the GCC member countries reached $56.88 billion.
Experts have observed that while GCC countries such as Oman and Bahrain have a high ratio of GCC trade to their total trade (33 percent and 18 percent respectively), trade involving other GCC members is less than eight percent of their total trade.
Trade between GCC states is also characterized by high concentration between neighboring countries. An example is Oman and the UAE; 90 percent of Oman’s exports GCC states and over 80 percent of Oman’s imports involve the UAE. With the streamlining of customs rules through the GCC customs union, trade between GCC member countries is expected to grow.
The GCC customs union is in its second phase of customs procedures that will remove bureaucratic snags impeding liberalization of trade. According to expert studies, a unified customs tax will also solve problems concerning inter-economic and commercial cooperation as well as co-operation with other countries and international economic blocs.
The studies have said that the non-adoption of a single-point entry system and procedures on borders and the absence of a unified tax had obstructed intra-GCC trade and re-export.
It also discouraged the movement of goods and services between the GCC states, and overburdened consumers with the payment of additional customs tariffs, every time the product is moved from a country to another.
Apart from creating a huge market, the customs union will also have positive commercial and economic effects on the region, especially that the GCC states, following the implementation of the unified tax, would agree on a special mechanism for the distribution of customs revenues among them, according to the studies.