KUWAIT CITY, 29 November 2005 — The European Union and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are expected to conclude negotiations on a long stalled free trade deal before the end of the year, the GCC secretary general said yesterday.
“There is a state of optimism from both sides that they will be able to resolve certain outstanding technical issues by the year end,” Abdurrahman Al-Attiyah told AFP.
The two sides will hold a meeting in Riyadh next week, he said, saying a round of talks held in Brussels early this month made “great achievements” and helped “resolve a large number of outstanding issues.”
The GCC and the EU signed a framework economic cooperation agreement in 1988 but have so far failed to agree a free trade deal. After a round of talks held in Bahrain in April, the two sides said they expected the deal to be concluded by the end of the year.
But an EU official who took part in Abu Dhabi talks in October cautioned that it might take more time to nail down a deal given the “thorny” issues both sides have to tackle such as market access, government procurement rules and intellectual property rights.