RIYADH, 4 April 2004 — China renewed its pledge to support Saudi membership in the World Trade Organization after signing a bilateral agreement as part of Saudi Arabia’s nine-year bid for accession to the trade body yesterday.
The signing brings to 31 the number of bilateral accords signed by the Kingdom with WTO member countries, leaving only four to be finalized — with the US, Indonesia, Panama and the Philippines.
Commerce and Industry Minister Dr. Hashim Yamani told a press conference here last night he was “happy” to sign the agreement with China, “a move which will speed up the Saudi accession to the WTO.”
“We have already made substantial reforms and brought our trade laws and practices into conformity with WTO obligations,” the minister said.
“Roughly, we hope to join the WTO before the end of 2004,” Dr. Yamani said. Earlier the Kingdom had hoped to join by this summer.
Under WTO rules, a country wishing to join the organization must agree arrangements with its main trading partners on market access and cutting customs duties, which are subsequently widened to all other WTO members.
The candidate must then make a commitment that it will ensure its trade legislation complies with all WTO rules as the last step before actually becoming a member.
Saudi Arabia first applied to join the WTO’s predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1993. Two years later, the Saudi application became an application to join the WTO. The Kingdom remains the only member of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council that is not a member.
“The Kingdom is very close to joining the WTO,” China’s Assistant Minister of Commerce Yi Xiaozhun, who signed the bilateral agreement on behalf of Beijing, told Arab News.
“The conclusion of the agreement will boost economic ties between the two countries,” he added. Two-way trade last year reached $7.34 billion.
Deputy Minister Fawaz Al-Alamy said the Kingdom was one of the largest markets in the region. “We hope that joining the WTO will further clear the barriers to exports and imports,” he said.
Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi is on a parallel visit to Beijing. Xiaozhun said the two sides “are willing to expand cooperation in the energy sector and ... are seeking to carry out major projects for a faster development of bilateral economic relations.”
Riyadh and Beijing have already been discussing long-term crude supplies from the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia has emerged to be the largest supplier of crude to China with volumes reaching 15.18 million metric tons.
The Kingdom and China are also discussing the expansion of a refinery in China’s Fujian province in which Saudi Aramco has a 25 percent stake. The refinery is expected to be expanded to 12 million tons per year or 240,000 barrels a day from four million tons per year or 80,000 bpd now. Exxon Mobil Corp holds another 25 percent, while Chinese Sinopec has a 50 percent stake in the refinery project.
Chinese oil giant Sinopec in January won a contract for exploration and production of natural gas in a 40,000 sq. km area of the Rub Al-Khali.
