JEDDAH, 21 December 2003 — Saudi Arabia has made progress in its bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) early next year. It has signed bilateral agreements with seven countries bringing the total number of accords to 24, the commerce and industry minister said.
“The technical team for WTO talks completed another round of negotiations today with seven WTO member countries in order to have market access to goods and services,” Dr. Hashem Yamani, who led the Kingdom’s negotiation team, said yesterday. “The talks were successful and we have signed bilateral agreements with the seven countries,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the minister as saying. He identified the seven countries as South Africa, Taiwan, Poland, Latvia, Hungary, Kirghistan and Paraguay.
Yamani also said negotiations with another group of WTO member states were in the final stages, adding that agreements could be reached with them next month. “Once we sign all these agreements, we will have fulfilled the main requirement for WTO accession,” he said.
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. It signed the deal with the European Union in August.
In a press statement earlier this month, US Assistant Secretary of Commerce William Lash agreed that Saudi Arabia was making “outstanding progress” toward a trade deal with Washington. “We are still looking at a few issues and there has been an unprecedented level of activity and progress made,” he said.
Together with Russia and Ukraine, Saudi Arabia is among the largest economies in the world still outside the WTO. In recent years, however, the Kingdom has taken tentative steps toward opening up its economy and diversifying its sources of income from dependence on oil.
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,” said Lash, who held talks with Yamani and Minister of Finance Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf in Riyadh.
Yamani said the Saudi technical team had prepared a report for presentation to the organization’s administrative officials early next month. “This is done in preparation for the 10th round of talks with the WTO team — in charge of Saudi Arabia’s accession — in the last week of February, 2004,” he added.
