SHARJAH, 10 March 2005 — The US favors a joint free trade agreement (FTA) with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and an FTA agreement under negotiations with the UAE will boost inter-GCC cooperation, according to a senior US officials. The comment reflects on calls from top officials from the region for a collective GCC FTA with the US rather than bilateral agreements. However, the US official, Catherine A. Novelli, assistant trade representative for Europe, Middle East, and North Africa, said there need not be a conflict over the issue. Novelli, who is in the UAE for the first round of FTA negotiations with the UAE government, told reporters that the US hopes to sign similar agreements with all the GCC member states, including Saudi Arabia.
However, Saudi Arabia has to become a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) before the US could start discussing a bilateral FTA with the Kingdom, she said.
Novelli noted that the US has already concluded an FTA with Bahrain, has launched FTA negotiations with the UAE and will be starting first round of negotiations with Oman next week. Serious discussions are also under way with Kuwait and Qatar, she added.
Novelli said the FTA talks with the UAE followed one year of discussions based on a “shared vision” of open markets.
“The US and UAE vision is so matching that we did not want to wait for very long to enter into an agreement,” said Novelli.
Meanwhile, the US is to launch FTA negotiations with Oman on Saturday with the goal of lowering tariffs and barriers and expanding trade between the two countries, a US Embassy spokesman told Arab News in Muscat yesterday. US-Oman negotiations in this regard have been going on for some time.
The spokesman said the upcoming visit of Novelli to Oman is designed to “push the negotiations to the logical end.”