JEDDAH, 8 December 2003 — Saudi Arabia has made “outstanding progress” toward a trade deal with Washington that can pave the way to joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). The progress notwithstanding, plenty remains to be done, a senior US trade official said.
Assistant Secretary of Commerce William Lash said “broad areas of review” needed to take place and Saudi Arabia was still supplying the United States with information on customs rules, standards and barriers to trade. “We are still looking at a few issues and there’s been an unprecedented level of activity and progress made. There is a very strong commitment from Saudi Arabia to economic reform,” Lash told Reuters.
The agreement with the United States is the last major bilateral hurdle for the Kingdom before it joins the WTO, the global trade body set up in 1995 to lower barriers to the exchange of goods and services among members. Together with Russia and Ukraine, Saudi Arabia is among the largest economies in the world still outside the WTO but in recent years, it has taken tentative steps toward opening up its economy and diversifying its income from oil dependence.
It signed a bilateral trade agreement with the European Union in August and said at the time that it expected to complete negotiations to join the trade group by the end of the year.
Economists in the Kingdom, however, say they expect US negotiators to take a tougher line than the 15-nation EU bloc which is the Kingdom’s main trading partner. Business relations between the Kingdom and the US were suffered after 9/11. This was echoed in trade figures which showed US exports to the Kingdom falling about 15 percent between 1997 and last year. At the same time, Lash said ties remained “smooth”. He declined to give a target date for a bilateral deal. “There are some broad areas for review that need to take place in financial services, protection of intellectual property — where the Kingdom has made outstanding progress but it is important to get the laws up to WTO standards,” he said.
Saudi authorities are still presenting information to the United States on issues including customs, standards, barriers, “to really explain what the system is so we can address them. It’s important that we look at this whole thing comprehensively.
And you cannot negotiate every single sector until you know exactly where all the barriers are,” Lash said.
The WTO committee overseeing Riyadh’s entry met for the first time in three years just two months ago, a meeting which Lash said was very positive. “Until we have all the information it will be premature to say what our position will be, other than the fact that from the president down, we are extremely supportive of accession (to the WTO),” he said. “We think it is very important for Saudi Arabia to be fully recognized and accepted by the family of trading nations,” he added.
Lash met the Minister of Commerce and Industry Dr. Hashem Yamani and Minister of Finance Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf in Riyadh.
He also participated in discussions on Iraq’s reconstruction sponsored by the Council of Saudi Chambers, which was attended by more than 200 Saudi businessmen. In Jeddah, he met the rector of King Abdul Aziz University, members of the Executive Committee of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry and members of the American Business Group.
